Tales of a Crusader
by Mr Waffle
Summary: Set during Gen 1 of Fire Emblem 4, featuring an OC and his adventures (and misadventures) in Jugdral. (Not a Self-Insert)
1. A start to a long journey.

The sun slowly rose on the frosty plains near castle Zaxon as I rode eastward.

_I wonder if father will send soldiers to look for me once he notices my absence. _I thought, _probably not, I'm not his heir after all. It's not worth his effort._

My name is Tulen Daccar von Forseti. 2nd child of the Duke of Zaxon and nephew of the late King of Silesse.

And a run away knight as of half an hour ago.

I sighed as I journeyed along the road to Lübeck, it was a beautiful- if slightly misty- morning that by all rights I should've enjoyed riding through.

But I couldn't, my mind dwelt on to many somber thoughts.

My lord father desired the throne of Silesse, of which he could not legally inherit unless the line of his late brother, the former King, went extinct.

So my fathers claim and subsequent plot to rebellion would've died without gaining much support, if not for one tiny little problem.

The heir of sillesse and the only child of the King, Lewyn, decided to go missing without a trace.

Jackass.

So now allllllll of those nobles who would've happily sided with the Queen and her son Lewyn suddenly thought: "oh well, sense the royal brat is missing. That means we can support rival claimants, like the brothers of the king, Dukes Daccar and Maios, to became King! That way, we can destabilize the kingdom and throw everything into chaos, YAY!"

...

I guess you can't blame them solely for this problem, blame that idiot Lewyn leaving the realm and throwing it into this situation to begin with,

he's probably partying up a storm in some foreign country.

Jackass.

So that leaves me, why did I decide to leave Silesse? Well, let me explain that in my 3 step plan.

1: Find Lewyn.

2: Drag his sorry ass back to Silesse.

3: Make sure he gets coronated as King of Silesse.

Hopefully, and I mean _hopefully _that will solve the succession dispute.

Probably won't, but hey, finding the legitimate heir of my country would probably strengthen the Queens legitimacy and make some nobles join her side again, which would lead to a shorter civil war and less over all damage to the Kingdom.

And so here I was, on my trusty horse (because those damn Pegasi wouldn't let men ride them, sexist equines.) with my lance and wind tome. Traveling to Forseti-knows where in hopes to find a prince I don't particularly like, so that I could drag him back to sit on a throne that he really wasn't suited for.

Damn it Lewyn.

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**And that's Chapter 1, if there was any spelling errors, grammar issues or anything of that sort please tell me, I'm new to writing and all criticism is welcome. Have a great day!**

**Disclaimer, I don't own Fire Emblem, Nintendo does.**


	2. Memories of Lübeck

Lübeck was a grand castle, with a sprawling city built off the back of the trading routes that flowed through it and into inner Silesse.

As I rode into Lübeck, I could not help but notice the large military presence, and the hushed whispers of the populace.

"Did you hear? Grannvales Army is nearby, they say the army might siege Lübeck!"

"What?"

"Don't listen to the fear-mongering fool, Grannvale only just declared war on Isaach, there's no way the army's even entered the yied desert!"

"Hmph, Grannvales army is going to crush those damn Isaachians for what they did to Darna, why would they invade Silesse?"

The rumor mill was in full swing in Lübeck it seemed. Though judging from the increased military presence, and the army drilling outside the walls the Duke of Lübeck was taking the idea of Grannvale invading pretty seriously.

_It makes sense, _I thought, _Taking Lübeck would secure the supply lines from Grannvale to Isaach when they invade. However from what I've heard, Prince Kurth really just wants to beat Isaach quickly without dealing with a long drawn out war with anyone else, Smart strategy._

Of course, if they did invade Lübeck it would almost surely trigger a civil war, because if the royal army rode west, Maios would invade the Capitol from the north, and my father would then launch his own revolt for his claim. But Grannvale didn't know that.

Hopefully.

But this was just another reason to find Lewyn, if the kingdom had a solid heir to the throne who could wield Forseti, support for my father and uncle would drop like Pegasus shot by an arrow, Thus strengthening the kingdom and leading it to be more resistant to outside threats.

The Duke of Lübeck knew this, it's why he supported the Queen. And also why he made sure to keep his military trained and ready.

I shook these thoughts from my head as I went to buy supplies for my trip through the Yied desert. I guessed Lewyn wouldn't be in Isaach because the whole "Holy war" thing, I remembered distinctly that Lewyn also hated heat (as most of us Ice-blooded Silessians do) and would probably be somewhere with a somewhat similar climate to Silesse.

That led to 2 options, northern Grannvale and Agustria, luckily I could journey through Grannvale on the way to Agustria, so my path was thankfully a linear one.

Suddenly small shapes rushed past me, one after another.

"You can't catch me!" a young girl laughed

"Oh yes I can!" A boy pouted

The sight of two children playing in the market square brought back memories, of memories that had occurred not far from here, 15 years ago...

———————————————————————

_"Brother! Brother come here!" She was trying to catch up with me, her green hair flowing behind her back._

_I stopped and sighed, "What is it Hezel?"_

_My sister harrumphed, "Oh Tulen, why can't you just be cheerful for today, we're on vacation!" I turned my head in silence._

_"Father yelled at you again, didn't he."_

_She took my continued silence as an answer, "Brother... Listen to me," I turned back towards her, tears in my eyes. "It's not your fault, Tulen..."_

_"But it is!" I cried, "I can't use wind magic well, i-I've failed the family, I'm the reason mom died-"_

_"Don't say that!" Hezel yelled. "Listen to me, don't listen to him." Her words didn't help, I kept crying._

_"Tulen... do you want to know something?" She said after a moments pause, _

_I glanced up at her, __She smiled and cupped my chin, "You have Mothers eyes." She said softly,_

_"W-What?" I stammered between sobs._

_"You have her eyes, and her smile..." she started again "Tulen, I get sad sometimes when I think about Mother..." now she also had tears in her eyes. "But when I see you, you remind me of her, all the wonderful times I had with her when she was still alive." I stayed silent, shocked. "And I know, if she was still alive... she would've played, laughed and danced with you like she played with me." She pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed her eyes before handing it to me, "so let's go play, alright? For mother's sake." She then offered her hand. And smiled at me. I took the hand, and we walked away together._

_———————————————————————_

I shook myself from my daydream and kept walking around the market stalls, looking for anything I might need.

_Hezel..._ I thought, _please don't hate me for leaving, I promise I'll be back soon_.

After buying everything I needed, I left the castletown through the southern gate.

_Alright _I thought with renewed determination, _through the Yied desert!_

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**And that's Chapter 2, a bit sappy but I wanted to flesh out Tulen a bit more so he didn't come across as some random guy with no real connection to the world, if there were any grammar/spelling mistakes please tell me. Reviews are appreciated.**

**Disclaim: I do not own Fire Emblem. Also are these even necessary?**


	3. The Yied Desert

The Northern Yied desert was hotter than expected,

it felt as though the sun was attempting to beat me into the sands with its beams of light.

I was thankful for the white cloak and it's cowl that I picked up in Lübeck, it allowed me to hide my identity towards anyone who might recognize me, and served as protection from the beating sun.

It didn't remove the effects of the blasted heat though.

I was mostly worried about my horse, Elytia, while there where occasionally cliffs that provided good shade during the heat of day, it was often she would go without protection for many hours at a time, leaving her thoroughly exhausted and in great need of water.

I had to start rationing water for myself in order to get enough for my horse.

I realized 2 days into my journey that if I kept using the same amount of water on a day by day basis I wouldn't reach the next oasis before I ran out of water.

That night I noticed just how could the nights in the desert were, and I had an idea.

I started traveling by night, and sleeping by day. My horse was fairing far better in the cold of night than the heat of day, and didn't need as much water. and in 3 days I reached an oasis.

And by the looks of it, a town.

The remains of a town to be precise, the still smoking husks of the village and the corpses on the ground showed it had been a victim of a recent massacre. The blood glinted against the sand as the sun slowly rose in the east.

As I rode through the town, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched, at first I assumed it was just the eeriness of the town causing such paranoia. It was foolish to trust paranoia.

"Well, look what we have here." A voice spoke.

_Why didn't I trust my paranoia?_

As I slowly turned around I was met with the rather threatening sight of 6 swordsmen, Isaachian by the looks of it, with their blades drawn.

I started reaching for my weapons.

The leader laughed, "we've got a fighter here eh?, we'll make your death quick."

I pulled out my wind tome.

"Wait, what's th-"

I cast the spell. Two blades of wind shot forward with blinding speed and sliced their leader in a X formation, causing him to fall down.

To the other men's credit, they didn't flinch and charged me with surprising speed, leaving me no time to cast another spell as I took out my lance to defend myself.

The first man to reach me might've landed a blow on me if my Eyltia hadn't lashed out her hooves, her steel horshshoes tearing up the poor mans skin to shreds. I realized that I needed to run away, unfortunately it seems the swordsmen understood this and encircled me. Keeping a respectable distance from me for the most part. Yet as soon as I looked away from one another would attack me from behind, and usually landed a hit. I was soon bleeding from several blows.

After spearing one through chest successfully, I noticed the leader had gotten up and was coming to attack me once more.

_I'm losing too much blood. _I thought.

As I managed to slay another, bringing their overall numbers down to three, I was almost too exhausted to bring up my lance.

My horse wasn't doing so well either, she was bleeding and I was worried she would collapse any moment now.

The leader rushed me, I knew this was probably it. I closed my eyes.

_CLANG_

The sound of metal clashing nearly jolted me out of my saddle.

I looked up, and saw the leader and a new swordsman clashing, the leader was soon disarmed in blinding speed and stabbed through the chest.

I looked behind me and saw the last two swordsmen with shocked expressions, and then they turned and fled.

I looked back at the blonde swordsman who saved my life, his hair glinting in the morning sunlight.

"That was close, you all right?" He asked.

I gave a nod and then fell off my horse.

———————————————————————

I opened up my eyes, everything hurt.

I heard water spashling nearby, I (quite painfully) sat up and saw Elytia happily taking a bath in the oasis.

_Wait, the Oasis-_

"Oh! You're awake."

I turned my body to the sound of the voice but was stopped half way by a sudden spike of pain along my side.

"Hey easy there! You'll rip your bandages." The mans face finally came into view, he was the same blonde man from earlier.

"Ugh... how long have I been out?" I asked.

"About a day." He responded.

"Why did you save me?"

"You look rich, I thought there might be a reward for saving you."

Damn my armor, it's too shiny too look like an adventurers.

"You could've just looted my corpse after I died." I deadpanned.

He gave a hurt expression, "I may be a mercenary, but I have standards."

_Blunt aren't we?_

I gave a laugh. "Well, I can't refuse to give you a reward in the current stale I'm in," I gave a meaningful glance to my injuries "you did save my life, what's your name?"

"Holyn." He replied.

"Cyrus." It felt wrong to lie to the man who saved my life, but I felt it was for the best that my identity remained a secret. "There's a gold purse tied to my saddle, take 250"

He raised both his eyebrows in disbelief, walked to where Elytia's saddle was resting and opened the purse. "You're loaded! Where did you-"

"Good investments." I lied again, damn the guilt was starting to get to me.

Holyn took 5 coins out that represented 50 each.

"Better reward than I expected, saving your life was the best decision I've made."

I smiled. After a moment past where Holyn seemed to be checking the coins to make sure they weren't forgeries I decided to ask him some questions.

"Where you from?"

He paused, his brows furrowed and he shot me a suspicious glance. "Nowhere"

Odd reaction, must've done something shady in the past. "Where are you heading? People don't usually stay in the desert for too long." I shot him a sideways glance "unless your a hermit."

Holyn laughed at that, the tension dissipated.

"No, I'm afraid a live of celibacy wouldn't suit my... tastes."

_Guess his moral code doesn't extend to chastity before marriage._

"I'm heading to Agustria"

"Funny that, I'm heading that way too."

"Going home?"

"Nope, I'm from Silesse."

He quirked an eyebrow "I thought Silessians had green hair?"

Damn, that struck a nerve. "My Mother was from Manster." I rudely replied.

That was actually true, I got my brown eyes and dark brown hair from her, I didn't mean to tell him that but the quip brought back... unpleasant memories.

He noticed my tonal shift and abruptly mumbled an apology.

"Sorry..."

"No it's fine, I asked you a somewhat rude question earlier didn't I?"

He gave a strange gaze, and then cracked a smile,

"Well I'm gonna crash for today, you should too, the vulnery I applied to your wounds heals better when your asleep. And then I'll think you'll be good enough to set out for Agustria tonight."

"Alright, but don't abscond with my money while I'm asleep alright?"

"Don't worry, the last time I tried to get close to your horse when you fell it almost killed me with its damn hooves. Gods know what it would do to me if I tried to steal from you."

I laughed, and let myself slowly drift to sleep.

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**AN: So that's Chapter 3, I think I'm going to start doing more chapters around this word count as it seems to strike a nice balance between too long and too short.**

**Also thank you _guest _for reviewing, to answer your question: Yes, Tulen has minor Forseti holy blood. **

**Please review! I'm doing this mostly to improve my writing so all feedback/corrections are appreciated.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fire emblem, FE is owned by IS/Nintendo**


	4. Hello Grannvale!

After me and Holyn woke up at nightfall, and seeing how my wounds had healed at an alarming rate (vulnerary works miracles.) we decided to set off towards Grannvale.

It was decided that we set our supplies on Elytia and lead her by hand, like a packhorse.

Elytia was quite offended being treated like a packhorse, but acquiesced nonetheless.

While we journeyed through the desert night, I noticed that the sand underfoot soon became rather gravelly in nature, and that we were surrounded by large cliffs.

"I didnt expect this in the desert." I mentioned to Holyn, gesturing at the rocky cliffs.

He pondered for a moment, before responding;

"It's said that the reason such formations came to be is that when the twelve crusaders fought the Dark God, It fell so hard to the ground it pushed the sand into the cliffs we now see." He paused "some say the rocks are his bones."

I shuddered at the thought, "are you serious?" I skeptically asked.

He paused once more, "I'm not sure if I do or not, but wether it's true doesn't matter to me. After all, the dead stay dead, and can never return."

There was a strange quality to the way he spoke, almost practiced in its delievery. Almost... regal.

We arrived at a Castle called Phinora

Less of a castle and more of palisade wall with some tents inside it. But it would do I guess.

We stocked up there and set out again, not wanting to stay to long. The nervous atmosphere of its inhabitants infecting is somewhat.

———————————————————————

The cliffs were actually a sign that we were close to Grannvale, and in 6 days time, the sand gave way to dry grass.

Honestly I could've kissed the grass and the blessed normal temperatures that came with it. No more of the damned Infernally Hot/Chillingly Cold desert weather cycle.

And then we neared a fork in the road, to head west meant to go directly to Agustria, and to head Southwest meant to go to Grannvales capitol, Grann.

"I fear this is where we part, Holyn." I said with a bit of remorse. I had truely enjoyed his company, he was a witty and interesting man.

He seemed somewhat suprised, "really? I thought you were heading to Agustria with me?"

"..." I paused, before eventually deciding to tell the truth. Or at least, the partial truth.

"You see, I'm looking for someone. They might be in Northern Grannvale" he gave a look of understanding. "But, if I don't find them here, I'll try for Agustria next."

Silence reigned for a few seconds.

"... ah damn" he finally said, "You were a nice man to have around."

"My thoughts exactly." I smiled. "Perhaps we will meet again."

"I should hope not, if that were the case you would probably not have found who you're looking for."

"Thanks, Holyn." Gods if I could reveal my identity right now and hire this man I would, he would be a good retainer. If paid well, of course.

"If you ever find yourself in Silesse and out of work, go to Zaxon and ask for me, Alright?"

He seemed to be suprised at the offer, and nodded. "If I ever find myself in those oddly specific circumstances, I will." He gave a laugh, and then a wave. And trudged off to Agustria.

A few days later and I saw a castle in the distance, a good place to restock and rest for a bit, I assumed.

As I got to the village on its outskirts, I noticed the gigantic army currently residing there with its tents encamped near the village.

_The crusaders, _I thought, _hopefully they don't try to gang press me into their army._

It was unfortunately common practice, and even more unfortunately, a _lawful_ practice to gangpress unsuspecting men into marching armies as they moved to their destination.

For the average pious Grannvallian they would be _honored_ to join Prince Kurth's righteous crusade against Isaach. But for me?

My dear, I don't give a damn.

I just wanted to find Lewyn. And I didn't fancy a trip back through the desert I almost died in.

so I avoided them as best I could, luckily the army men I saw were mostly drunk and enjoying their time home before the next march.

As I restocked on supplies, I noticed a group of red robes mages walking around, obviously searching for something.

Or someone.

I rushed through my necessary shopping and went to pick up Elytia from the stables.

I walked through the door to the Stable owners buisness. "Sir? Are you there? I'm in a bit of a hur-"

"Going somewhere?"

_Damn you paranoia, if you had acted up sooner-_

Suddenly, I felt quite, d-d-drowsy...

_Yawn._

I clonked out on the floor.

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**AN: Thanks for reading! Please review to tell me what you think of the story/any spelling or grammatical errors.**

**Have a good one!**


	5. Memories of a staff

_"If you want to be a knight, you'll have to do better than that, young master." Sir Reyvelt reprimanded._

_I was on my butt, rubbing my recently bruised arm._

_"Aren't you being to hard on the kid?" Sir Selyn replied._

_We were on the training grounds, were we practiced sword fighting, horseback riding, and all the other skills a "fine lord" should know._

_My teachers were Sir Reyvelt and Sir Selyn, Sir Reyvelt was an old veteran knight of Zaxon. A stern, strict, and most importantly, skilled and distinguished knight._

_Sir Selyn, by contrast, was quite young. A young knight of 19, but by no means was unskilled or undeserving of his knighthood, With a near constant smile._

_And finally, me. A rather weak 10 year old boy, attempting to earn his spurs._

_Failing at earning my spurs would be more accurate._

_My swordplay was a mess, my magical talent was decent for my age but nothing compared to my relatives aptitude for magic._

_It was honestly pathetic._

_Yet no matter how bad I was at my subjects, Sir Selyn And Sir Reyvelt pressed on, determined that I gain the skills to suit my Station. _

_"Selyn, this is a nobles training we're talking about." Sir Reyvelt said in his stern voice, his gray mustache quivering as he spoke. "It is of utmost import that he be able to fend off an assassin should they ever come."_

_"But why should they target him? He's 2nd in line and near constantly surrounded by strong guards. He'll be fine!" Sir Selyn spoke in my defense._

_Sir Selyn was always kind to me, and offered me a hand to help get me off the ground._

_I took it, remaining my silence in the conversation. _

_"You are far too lax in your ways, __**young **man" putting a special emphasis on the word "young"_

_Selyn feigned shock, and laughed it off. They had the same conversation almost every time I trained with them, and their reactions, words, and comebacks had very little difference between each conversation._

_But this time, something different happened just as Selyn was about to make his retort._

_"Well now, **Old **ma-"_

_"Sir Reyvelt! Sir Reyvelt!" A servant of the castle ran up to us, and kneeled. "The Duke requests your presence."_

_"Very well... Selyn!" He shouted, causing the younger knight to salute. "Make sure the young master continues his training, and do not go easy on him!" He pointed a accusing finger at Selyn, to which Selyn, being Selyn, just smiled and shook his head._

_As they left, Selyn leaned into my ear, and making sure they were gone, whispered "I brought some sweet tarts, if you promise to try your best I'll let you have some afterwards" I smiled, and nodded. Sir Selyn was my clear favorite between the two knights._

_After 2 hours of hard work (I.e, getting beat up and run ragged.) Selyn finally called for a break._

_"Tulen!" He said, I allowed him to call me by my name when no one else was around. "The sweet tarts are in my bag by the weapon rack, go fetch them for me would you?" I nodded once more, and set off with a little skip in my step as I went to the bag, happy as I coul-_

_That was when I heard steel against leather, the telltale sign of a sword being drawn._

_I looked behind me, suddenly seeing Selyn with his sword drawn, closing the distance between us with alarming speed. His smile was gone._

_"S-Selyn?" I said, rapidly backing up from him. "What are you-"_

_He snarled, by Forseti he **snarled **at me, Selyn had never made a such a violent noise befo-_

_"Prepare to die, you little wretch." He spat._

_I scrambled into the weapons rack, grasping randomly to find a weapon as my hand closed on a shaft of wood. I picked it up and just barely dodged Selyns first swing._

_I had grabbed a Lance._

_As Selyn came after me again with his sword, I thrusted with the lance towards his chest, this caused Selyn to back his swing up to deflect, but my move was a feint, I quickly changed course to aim at his knee instead of his chest. Unfortunately Selyns speed with his sword allowed him to deflect the blow still. Turning his sword to strike upwards towards me, I rolled to his side and attempted to counterattack yet he deflected again. _

_He attacked again, this time I deflected as I backed up away from him._

_What was this... I could barely hold my own against Selyn, but now we were even? I was exhausted before we began but now I feel... strangely energized._

_Selyn was confused too, but renewed his attacks in a beserk fashion, one after the other in quick succession. I couldn't rest for a second._

_As I continued to back up and deflect, I realized I was backing up into the stone castle wall. I couldn't continue like this. And he wasn't letting up his attacks either! Damnit, what could I do?_

_Then the idea came to me. It would probably kill me but damnit I would die if I didn't try anyways._

_As his next overhead swing came, I raised my lance horizontally and the sword bit into the wooden shaft, not quite snapping it._

_And then I snapped it myself, throwing Selyn offbalance as he fell forward and his sword bit into my shoulder blade, I screamed but I knew what my next move was._

_I stabbed the half lance I still wielded into Selyns heart. Straight through his chest._

_Selyn's eyes widened in shock and confusion, he lost his grip on his sword and fell down to the grass._

_He wasn't dead just yet, I pulled the sword out of my shoulder which strangely didn't quite hurt anymore, it felt dull, everything felt dull._

_"Young master!" I heard Sir Reyvelt yell, I turned my head weakly as he ran towards me from around the corner. "Thank goodness, we found a Thovian cleric with a Beserk staff and I was worried-"_

_He stopped. _

_He saw._

_He rushed towards me._

_Beserk staff? But that would mean..._

_Oh gods._

_I turned to Selyn, he was dead._

_I fainted as I heard Reyvelt yell again. _

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**AN: This is double uploaded with chapter 6, because I felt it unfair to extend last chapters cliffhanger for too long.**

**Thank you for reading, Please review.**

**Have a good one, folks.**


	6. The Red Duke

"You were out for longer than I expected." A voice said as I began to open my eyes, it was regal and spoke of power.

"I have a sensitivity to staves." I muttered weakly, my throat was dry, and my voice cracked.

"Hm... interesting." The voice wasn't mocking in anyway, suprisingly.

As I fully opened my eyes, what I didn't expect to see was a surprising amount of sunlight, a nice large room, and that I was sitting in a comfortable bed.

Or a Handsome Red-eyed man, with long, Blood red hair, sitting in a chair next to me.

My paranoia spiked after seeing him.

"Here, you were out for 2 days." he spoke, handing me a glass of water. Aw that's nice, I hope it's not poisoned.

I drank the water, and then turned to him with my eyebrow raised.

"So why would you send an agent to use a sleep staff on me, only to then put me in a nice room with a comfy bed, and offer me a glass of water?" I asked in a polite tone.

"Well it's not everyday a Silessian nobleman waltz's into my City."

_Well shit._

I wasn't really suprised he knew my identity per se (why else would I be captured?) but the current situation just had me on edge.

"So you treat all Silessian nobility this way? Or am I an exception to the normal procedure?" I asked sarcastically.

"If that was some attempt to find out if your Prince passed through here before you I'm sorry to disappoint, but I must inform you he is currently not in Grannvale according to my sources." Damn, smooth mindreading jackass.

"Would that mean you know where he is?"

"Yes, but I'm not telling."

"Why not?"

"Because you've done nothing to earn such information."

"..."

"..."

Damn this man made silence intense.

"Have we even introduced ourselves yet?" I said.

"We haven't, which was my mistake. I am Duke Arvis de Velthomer."

"Tulen von Silesse, as you already knew."

He smiled. Gods, his strange mix of intensity, formality, charm and intelligence was just unnerving to put it lightly.

"I like to study up on fellow nobles."

_Apparently watch them sleep too..._

"So, what would I need to do in order to learn the Prince's location?"

"Blunt I see, good, small talk is something I do far too much of in all honesty." He adjusted his seat.

"First, why do you want to find Prince Lewyn?"

"To return him to his homeland and have him take his birthright." I replied.

His face remained impassive.

"Really? I thought considering your fathers dispoisition to the current reigning monarch, you might be inclined to dispose of him."

"Sons aren't there fathers, I thought you might know that better than anyone."

His face flashed darkly for a second there, it was truely frightening in all honestly, yet I let myself feel ever so slightly smug at my little jab, I had gotten him to break his mask for a second.

He ignored it though. "Yet you have much to gain from such a move, you would be two steps away from being King of Silesse, and you would be the heir to the Dukedom of Zaxon if your sister claimed the Kingdom her inheritance."

"For starters, I'm unable to wield Forseti, therefore cannot rule Silesse."

"Lesser holy blood, good to know."

"And for seconds, if Lewyn died, civil war between Maios and Thove would be inevitable, and then that nice big Grannvalian crusade marching north might be tempted to swoop in and take over after Isaach is finished off."

"Ah, you view patriotism to your country, and duty towards its stability, more important than the Grand game of politics, I see..."

"I imagine you would be quite familiar with men like me, Grannvale is well renowned for its patriots."

"Men who hold such values are easy to manipulate to my wishes, and you are correct that we have quite a few of those fools in my country."

_What was he aiming at? Why was he being so honest?_

"Well, I've answered your question, but what else must I do for information?" I requested.

He pondered for a moment, as if preparing and analyzing his next words with extreme care.

"I need you to guard my brother for a time." He eventually spoke.

"How long a time?" _This should be easy._

"Until he returns home from attempting to help a patriotic fool fight off a backstabbing ally while our armies are in Yied." He said quite calmly.

_..._

_The absolute-_

_..._

_What._

"May I request further enlightenment on the situation?"

He smirked. Damn that devilishly handsome- FOCUS

"Verdane is about to backstab us while Prince Kurth marches to Isaach with our entire army, thus leaving Sigurd de Chalphy, and his 3 or so knights, to defend Grannvale from the west."

I was still _very_ confused. Thankfully Arvis continued.

"Verdane will strike Jungby first, overpower it, and probably kidnap Lady Aideen de Jungby. This causing my brother Azel, who is quite smitten with the fair lady, to ride out to her aid, probably dragging his best friend Lex de Neir along. From which I would suspect the quite strong holy blooded Grannvalian knights to win out, and invade Verdane to reclaim Lady Jungby, but that would put Azel in danger I'm not sure he can handle."

...

Ok.

...

"Have you planned this out?" I finally spoke.

"Yes"

"Why not inform Jungby of the impending threat?"

"Because it would mess up my plans. Also raise questions about _how _I know in the first place."

I was about to ask him that very thing when he cut me off before I could speak.

"Also Verdane is a supposedly trusted ally who we have had no issues with up until this point, and my voice would get drowned out by foolish court of "patriotic" noblemen"

...

That...

...

made a lot of sense actually.

Welp, I'm probably going to have to do this aren't I?

"So I follow your brother, Protect him for the duration of his absence. And maybe try to rescue the girl too?"

"If you can make it so that Azel is the one who finally rescues her that would be a plus, it would a be a splendid strategic marriage." He stated with the same calm tone, like we were planning a happy little teaparty.

"Also," he started again. "You'll be posing as the only Royal Guard-Knight I could spare, thus earning Sigurd's trust and maintaining appearances." He paused for a moment "I might also show up sometime to give Sigurd some token of our Kings appreciation, perhaps some fancy little sword." He added as an afterthought.

"You are far to relaxed about this."

"Better to relaxed than constantly paranoid."

My gods, he _does _read minds.

"Alright, I accept." I said with a resigned sigh. "Is my horse, and the rest of my equipment, alright?

He smiled "They are in perfect condition, though your horse almost killed a couple of my mages."

He paused yet again. "And for my end of our deal;

Prince Lewyn's somewhere around Agusty castle, posing as a bard."

I knew it, goddamnit Lewyn. Spoiled playboy runaway prince when I get my hands on you I'll-

Hold on, there's a fault in mr. plans plan here.

"What if I neglected our arrangement and ran straight to Agusty?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Oh I would know," he paused, giving me his smile once again. "And it would be nice to practice with Valflame some more."

———————————————————————

**AN: And so we've met Arvis and will now be reving at full throttle to the Prolouge of Genealogy of the Holy War. **

**Thanks for reading, please review!**

**Speaking of reviews, thank you Heroking121 for reviewing! And to answer your questions:**

**Uhhhhhhhh I have no idea, but if I do go to gen 2 Tulens probably gonna be barbaqued in Chapter 5. And as for pairings I will be doing those, and I really hope to keep doing this as I go into the new semester!**

**Have a good one, folks!**


	7. The Young Lord of Flames

To be honest, the death threat scared the ever living shit out of me.

Listen, Valflame was no mere Fire tome, when properly controlled, Arvis could've slow roasted me like a pig, or disintegrated me with a meteor.

Holy weapons in general terrified me, Forseti itself could tear people into shreds with impossibly fast winds.

Another good reason to keep the throne away from my father, gods know what he would do with that kind of power.

Luckily, the moment of terror was short as a knock came to the door.

Arvis immediately snapped from his creepy smile and terrifying demeanor into his usual lordly self.

"Come in." He called.

A servant practically bursted into the room, panting.

"My lord! Forgive my insolence, but it's urgent! Verdane has invaded Jungby!"

...

Arvis was a psychic wasn't he.

Arvis put up a concerned expression, _practiced, _I knew.

"By Fala! Who is left to defend?" He said with quite convincing worry.

"Only Lord Sigurd and his few knights are nearby enough to react!"

"Blast!" He exclaimed. He was certainly a damn fine actor, I'll give him that.

He '_composed' _himself. "Hatheford." The servant straightened to attention. "Ready my horse, I'll be riding to his majesty's palace immediately."

"Yes, your will shall be done my lor-"

"My lord!" Another servant ran into the room "your brother, Lord Azel, is missing! As well as his friend Lord Lex!"

...

Holy Shit, he is a psychic.

Arvis pulled the most convincing act of shock I've ever seen. My gods, this man should've been acting in Silesse's grand theatre.

"W-What! Where could he have... of course, he's gone to Lady Aideen of Jungby's aid!" He exclaimed.

His face snapped to serious, he turned to me.

"Cyrus de Halcastle." Huh, guess that's my name now. "I know you are still recovering from your injuries from your last mission," oh damn, that's a clever explanation for why I arrived knocked out.

"But you are the only Knight I can spare, your armor and your weapons will be sent up to you by Jaeson." He gave a look to the servant who most recently entered. "And your horse will be readied at once, set out as soon as possible to protect my brother." He finished.

"Yes My lord!" I fell into the act quick.

"I must now take my leave, Good luck Cyrus, I'm depending on you" And he left.

_Depending on me eh?_ I thought.

"Sir Halcastle." The servant name Jaeson spoke, "I shall ready your horse and send up your equipment at once, but what does your horse look like?"

"She's a white derstrier, her name is Elytia." I said, he nodded and left.

Time to get in the feel of my new role, a pawn in the grand chess game of the Duke of Velthomer.

———————————————————————

I set out half an hour later, my supplies had been restocked, my horse was in good shape, my weapons and armor had been polished and repaired.

It seems Arvis did hold his promises.

I rode like hell in a B-line to Jungby, hoping to catch up with Azel and Lex as soon as possible, they could only be an hour ahead of me at most.

Unfortunately they were riding just as fast as me, because it was taking far too long to catch up with them. As I viewed the signage on the road I raced on I knew I was closing in on Jungby.

7 hours later I knew Elytia was at her limit, and I took a break in a forest for the night after the sun set.

At the crack of dawn the next day I was riding again. Hoping for some sign of Azel and Lex.

6 hours later, in the heat of noon, I saw smoke on the horizon.

I rode as fast as I could, as the trees thinned out a rolling grassy plain and a slightly burning township showed itself to me.

I saw two figures, one wearing blue, mounted on a warhorse and swinging his axe like a madman, The other by contrast, was wearing red and standing some distance away casting fire magic against the numerous Verdanian soldiers surrounding them. I quickly guessed by the blood-red hair alone it was Azel.

I rode down to the fray, catching one of the Verdanians of his guard as I ran him through with my lance.

Lex was getting surrounded, but I wasn't worried about him, Azel, on the other hand, was hastily backing away from 5 men running at him with their axes ready.

"Lord Azel!" I called as I lanced another soldier in the chest, they were remarkably untrained soldiers.

He turned his head to look at me, then tripped.

Oh hell.

I rode towards Azel as fast as I could. But his pursuers were closer and closing in fast.

I pulled out my wind tome, And channeling the magic, cast my spell.

The first soldier of the five got slashed across the chest with wind, the second was knocked over as the first fell backwards.

I ran the third through with my lance. And Elytia tore another to shreds with her hooves.

I turned to find the fifth only to be met with the sound of combustion and screaming as a fireball took the poor bastard in the chest.

I turned back to Azel, he was sitting in the grass, his hand still extended from his last spell, he was panting heavily.

I rode up to him and offered my hand-

Until I was met with an axe blade next to my throat.

I looked to my right, Lex was sitting on his horse, eyes glaring in fury.

"Care to tell me your name, ruffles?" He said.

...

What? I wasn't even wearing any ruffles, was that just a nickname for nobleman he had going or something?

"Lex! He saved my life-" Azel came rushing to my defense.

"He could have ulterior motives." He responded icily "how did he know your name to begin with?"

"Lex-" Azel started to plead.

"Ahem" I cleared my throat. Catching their attention.

"My name is Cyrus de Halcastle, Of the Royal Guard-knights. Duke Arvis sent me to protect you, young lord." I said as calmly as I could considering the axe blade next to my throat.

Azel looked startled. "A-Arvis sent someone for me? No, he can't make me go back! I have to save Aideen!"

"Yep, you better get lost, ruffles" Again! You jackass, learn some damn courtly manners and get your eyes checked!

I calmed my rage, "I was sent to protect you my Lord, not to take you back."

"Huh? But Arvis..."

"Your lord brother spoke to me about your... uh... loyalty towards your friend Lady Aideen." I tired to phrase it non-accusingly, but Azel still blushed red. "He told me he wouldn't be able convince you not to go to her side, and ordered me too protect you while you were gone."

Azel seemed very confused, and considering what I knew of Arvis I would be confused too.

"So, you'll be my temporary retainer?"

I nodded, "I'll be under your command for the length of your abscence from Velthomer."

Azel seemed to gain a grip on things, but Lex still gave me his distrustful glare, but withdrew his axe.

"Well Sir Cyrus, I accept your company so long as you don't try to bring me back to Velthomer."

"As you wish, My lord" I said.

Azel was flustered by the my lord, but why? He and I were comparable in status of our respective countries, he should be used to having people address him formally.

"Uh, hate to bother your budding romance, but we need to meet with Lord Sigurd." Lex rudely interrupted my thoughts.

And Lex should've learned some damn manners by this point. Like what the hell, my father would've beat me with a birch if he heard me talking lik-

...

On second thought, it's a good thing his father wasn't as cruel as mine, but still, even Holyn was far more polite, and he was a mercenary dammit!

The comment startled Azel into action though, "right! His forces are southeast and Jungby bound, would should combine our strengths, Let's go Lex!" He started clambering onto Lex's horse. "Oh uh... um... follow us if it would please you- no wait that's not a commanding voice..." he started muttering.

"Shall I follow you M'lord?" I asked dryly, it was honestly shocking that Azel was so bad at ordering people, he was a kid sure, but being too nice and trusting can get you killed.

Well, he wasn't threatening me with death by holy weapon, so he was still better than Arvis in that regard.

"Yes! Absolutely!" He exclaimed, embarrassed by his stuttering behavior.

"Race you there, ruffles!" Lex called as he kicked his spurs and started riding away with Azel.

Ruffles, of all the stupid nicknames, it had to be ruffles.

I kicked my spurs and me and Elytia raced towards Lex and Azel, gaining quickly.

I'm going to have to put up with this for a long time aren't I?

———————————————————————

**AN: And now we are at the story of Fire Emblem 4 proper. **

**I'm trying to find the right balance for the characters of Azel and Lex, if they feel off the mark to you please tell me.**

**Thanks for reading and please review!**

**Have a good one folks!**


	8. Nobles & Marches

We rode southeast, searching for some sign of Lord Sigurd. We ended up running into a group of 3 Verdanians scouting, but me and Azels magic made short work of them. We took a quick break after that to let our horses rest.

"I've never seen a knight use magic before, ruffles" Lex said. I should've guessed my unusual skill set would've drawn suspicion sooner or later.

"My family discovered my unusual apt for magic when I was younger, and thought it would be a waste for me not to learn it while I trained as a knight." It was a lie, but Azel and Lex seemed to believe it.

We rode out again, traversing a rode that skirted past the edge of a forest.

As we were riding on, I noticed shapes appearing on the horizon, I started to slow my pace, Lex noticed my change in pace and gave me a questioning look, I pointed at the horizon, Lex looked and saw what I had seen.

It was a group of around 6 people, all mounted, riding towards us.

We stopped, they drew closer.

"That's Sigurd!" Azel said.

They were easier to see now, the one in the lead had blue hair and was clad in white armor, the riders directly adjacent to him were a pink haired woman and a man with dark brown hair...

Oh shit.

Why was he here.

My thoughts scrambled and I was almost too distracted to notice when they were right upon us.

"Lord Azel, Lord Lex! I truely didn't expect to see you here!" The blue haired man spoke in a quite manly voice.

"We came as soon as we heard that Jungby was under attack, Lord Sigurd, please allow us to join you!" Azel spoke with surprising confidence, I guess he was familiar enough with Sigurd to not make a bumbling mess of himself.

"I would gladly accept your aid. But I must ask, who is your other companion?" Sigurd said.

Azel looked rather confused, his face suddenly shot up in embarrassment when he remembered I was accompanying him.

"I-I, uh..." he started stumbling, I decided to save him from his embarrassment.

"My lord, I am Cyrus de Halcastle of the Royal Guard, I was sent by Duke Arvis to protect Lord Azel."

The brown haired man in the back looked at me strangely, _please don't recognize me_ I silently prayed.

"Oh! Well it is nice to meet you, Sir Cyrus. Can we be expecting anymore reinforcements?" Sigurd added hopefully.

"I'm not sure my lord. Lord Arvis is hesitant to send any of the Royal guard away from the King, due to the vast majority of our forces being in Yied."

Sigurd sighed, "That makes sense, though I hope our forces will be able to reclaim Jungby from the invaders-"

"Reclaim Jungby! You mean it's already fallen?!?" Axel exclaimed, A rare look of worry crossed Lex's face.

"Yes, but as far as we know, Lady Aideen was captured but not harmed." The brown haired man said calmly.

Lex looked at him sharply, "and who are you? You do not seem to be a knight of Grannvale."

"I am Prince Quan of Manster." He said slowly, emphasizing 'Prince'.

Oh man, the 'oh shit' look from Lex was a sight to behold, I could barely contain my laughter, his rude way of speaking finally bit him in the ass.

Lex awkwardly mumbled an apology for being so forward to which Quan just shrugged.

"I hate to interrupt, but we need to get going to Jungby as soon as possible." The pinkette spoke.

Quan and Lex straightened up immediately, "Of course, leave it to Ethlyn to remind us to stop goofing off. Eh, Sigurd?" Quan spoke with a slight chuckle.

"Absolutely, Lord Lex, Lord Azel, Sir Cyrus, we would be honored for you to join our forces." Sigurd spoke.

"As would we" Azel answered.

And we set off towards Jungby.

———————————————————————

I fell in line with the three retainers in the back of the group, knowing that it would be seen as rude to sit up there with those of higher status in my current disguise.

The blonde retainer decided to break from the banter with his green haired counterpart, and introduced himself.

"Ah so another joins our group! Having a fresh face around would be nice."

The blue haired knight quirked an eyebrow at that comment, yet remained silent.

"I am Noish, knight of Chalphy, and the man next to me with a towel on his head is Alec."

"I-it's not a towel!" The green haired man interjected "it's a band meant to keep my hair out of my face."

"Yes, Alec is quite fond of his majestic hair."

I smiled as Alec fumed, "My name is Cyrus. It's good to meat you both."

Noish smiled, and then he gestured his hand to the blue haired retainer,

"And this is Finn, retainer to Prince Quan."

"Its an honor to meet you Sir Finn."

"An honor to meet you as well, Sir Cyrus." His face remained impassive, only giving me a brief sideways glance.

"And I'm Oifey, Lord Sigurd's squire." A much younger voice I didn't expect stated. The youth rode out from beside Finn, that's why I didn't notice him at first...

"Good to meet you, Oifey."

"As to you, Sir Cyrus."

Afterwords it was mostly banter about our lives, of which Finn didn't partake in, I found out about another retainer of Chalphy, Arden, who was stuck defending the castle because he didn't have a horse, that poor man.

I inquired Alec about his green hair, and found out his grandmother was from a minor Silessian house, von Rockfelts, which were situated near the capitol if memory served me correctly.

But I couldn't help but notice every few minutes or so Prince Quan would give me a sideways glance from upfront while he was talking with Sigurd. Finn would often mimic the glance.

Until finally Finn spoke up.

"You look remarkably like Prince Quan, Sir Cyrus."

The sheer volume of my internal yell of _Shit _could not have been understated.

Thankfully I gave the best dumbfounded expression I could muster and stumbled out the proper words of:

"T-that's quite the compliment to be even in comparison with the looks of a Prince, Sir Finn."

"..." Finn was still giving me a not-quite-a-glare-but-still-threatening look that unsettled me quite a bit.

Meanwhile Alec and Noish were watching the exchange wide eyed with no idea what was going on, or what Finn was attempting to get at, Oifey wasn't paying attention to our conversation. And Lex was partially turned around, mouthing out 'lovebirds' to Noish and Alec, which caused them to laugh hysterically.

"_Ahem" _Sigurd interrupted, thank gods.

"We've arrived near Jungby. Ready yourselves for battle."

———————————————————————

**An: Thanks for reading! I will be slowing down updates to the story for a bit (I'm on vacation for about a week and a half) but I do plan to continue the story through this semester at least.**

**Have a good one, folks!**


	9. Battle at Jungby

"Quan!" Sigurd said, we were hiding out behind the crest of a hill nearby Jungby, Sigurd was telling us our plan. " take Finn and Cyrus, lead a direct lancer charge from the front. Also, Ethlyn you should accompany them." Quan nodded, Finn gave me a quick glance of suspicion again. "Noish, we'll be flanking from the left." Sigurd continued. "Azel, Lex, and Alec, sneak around the enemy and take them from behind. Objections?"

No one objected, and we moved to assemble.

"Good," Sigurd called, "once you get in position, Lord Azel, cast a spell of flame in the sky, that will be Quans que to charge."

As our task groups began moving to there respective locations, I knew it would take awhile for Azels group to properly circle around without being seen, so I got as comfortable in my saddle as I possibly could.

Quan and Finn were having a conversation about... something, I couldn't quite hear them.

Then Quan began to ride over to me.

_Welp, let's pray he hasn't figured it out. _

"I'm suprised you didn't object to be separated from your liege." Quan spoke.

Well, that was not quite what I expected. However I already knew my answer.

"With all due respect, Prince Quan. If my liege needed my assistance, he would've raised an objection himself." I paused "he trusts Sigurd's judgement, and I in turn will honor his trust."

Prince Quan was silent for a moment, before responding:

"Are you sure he's old enough to make that decision? If I recall correctly he's only 14, and he seems to have little confidence when speaking."

"..." That was a smart question, and it showed that Quan was paying attention to the manner those around him conducted themselves. That could be dangerous to my identity remaining secret.

"My lord, Azel may be young, and lacking confidence in his speech, but he's not unintelligent, and it most certainly would be out of line to embarrass my lord in front of a group of his peers by implying he is too weak to care for himself."

Quan took in this information silently, and turned away.

_Oh thank gods, he didn't ask about my looks._

Quan said something to Finn, to which Finn nodded, and we sat in silence.

And then Ethlyn rode up.

"How are you fairing, Sir Cyrus?" She with a strange amount of worry in her eyes.

It took me a second to process what on earth she was talking about, then I remembered Azel had recounted our skirmishes to the rest group earlier today.

"I'm doing quite well, Lordess Ethlyn. Your worry is quite an honor."

"That's good." She said with honest relief. "And please, I'm no lordess, 'My Lady' would be sufficient."

I quirked an eyebrow. "If that is what you wish my Lady, though I only meant to honor your poisition as Queen-apparent of Manster."

She blushed at that. "Please, Sir. That's hopefully a long ways off."

I chuckled at that. "Very well, _my Lady_, but once you become Queen I must insist on calling you _'Your Majesty_'"

She giggled, "Very well Sir Cyrus, I'm afraid I must ask your pardon now, I have to attend to my husband."

"As you wish, my Lady."

...

Wait...

My gods, she completely disarmed me,

I spoke to the future Queen of Manster _casually._

Quan was staring at me with daggers in his eyes.

_Oh Gods dammit. I'm getting skewered by Quan in the next fight aren't I?_

Luckily Quan didn't ride over to murder me just yet.

A good half an hour later (though it felt like much longer) we saw a spark of flame line the sky.

"Ready lances," Quan ordered. "And on my mark. Charge."

I got my lance ready and got in line with the others.

"3... 2... 1... MARK!" He yelled.

He charged out of the hillcrest, and down the hill towards the unsuspecting foe.

They were completely unprepared, they had been startled out of their tents by the flame, rubbing there eyes and without weapons, when we charged from the east, and Sigurd and Azel from south and west respectively, it was no battle.

It was a slaughter.

Verdanians ran away from one group only to run into another group and summarily cut down. Lances and swords flashed, Verdanians fell left and right.

Yet a few rallied themselves and fought back.

I was fighting a rather skilled axeman, who's speed and control over his weapon was startling.

But I finally managed to skewer his left shoulder by throwing my lance, causing his swings to slow enough for my horse to lash out her hooves, knocking the man out, and I finished him off with another stab.

"Finn!" That was Quans voice! I turned to see Finn had been dragged of his horse and was surrounded, he had taken a sword from a fallen enemy to defend himself.

I rode towards him as fast as possible, not stopping for a second.

Finn wasn't used to using a sword, that was obvious by his wide open swings that allowed his enemies to get some cuts in.

In a flash of metal he was disarmed by a mymidon, and was about to be run through with a sword.

I threw my lance.

It speared the myrmidon in the chest, stopping his thrust midway. Finn caught the sword from the dying mans hand and used to to block an axe strike from another verdanian soldier.

I pulled out my wind tome and proceeded to shred the enemies surrounding him with wind magic, to which they broke and ran.

I rode up to Finn, he was breathing heavily and wounded across his chest and arm.

"Need a lift?" I asked. He nodded, and I pulled him up onto Elytia.

We ran into Ethlyn and Quan, Quan had apparently caught Finns horse and Ethlyn quickly began healing Finn. I left him in their care and returned to battle.

The Verdanians tried to retreat into the castle, hoping to be safe behind its ruined walls, only to be hit by spells of wind and flame. A gift from me and Azel.

Still, a few men managed to retreat across the broken walls of Jungby.

A large man with an even larger axe can to the gate of Jungby, rallied his men around him, and apparently seeing the lost situation, yelled a war cry and led a desperate charge to break through our forces.

They were cut down like the rest, though the leader personally dueled Sigurd for a bit before being slain.

In the aftermath, the grass was red with blood. There was corpse after corpse draped across the plains in front of Jungby, the carrion birds already circling over head.

But we won without casualties. Thank Forseti.

———————————————————————

As we rode into Jungby, many of the people who had holed up in their ruined houses during the occupation came out to cheer us, we smiled and waved but rode intently to the castle's keep.

We found out from a servant that the lady Aideen had indeed been captured by Prince Gandolf.

But what we more surprisingly discovered was that her retainer, a green haired man named Midyr, was alive, albeit injured. He had been assumed dead after Jungby's capture. He pledged his services to Sigurd almost immediately.

He was also, suprisingly enough, Alec's first cousin once removed. And judging by how they immediately hugged upon seeing each other, rather close.

We decided to rest in Jungby after the battle, while it had been a relatively easy fight, Noish, Finn, and Lex had all gotten themselves badly injured during the fighting, they needed to recuperate (despite Lex's protests about being 'perfectly healthy' when his arm was bending the wrong way.)

I was walking the halls of the castle a few hours after the battle, trying to find Azel to see if he was holding up alright.

I turnt a corner to find Finn leaning against a wall, his arm in a cast

"Hello, Sir Cyrus." He said coldly.

"Hello, Sir Finn." I responded

There was an awkward silence.

"Shouldn't you be resting?" I asked.

"I should, but..." he sighed. "I-, I was rude to you earlier, and for that I apologize." He finally spoke.

I was taken aback by that, having thought he and Quan would've figured out my heritage by now. And this was the confrontation. My senses were wrong, it seemed.

"It's fine, you were just being suspicious out of concern for your lord, I understand."

He nodded, "thank you, I was just a bit taken aback by your appearance."

Ah, I guess that means they don't understand _why_ I look like Prince Quan so much, good.

I nodded, "You mentioned that earlier, I understand."

He looked towards the windows of the keep, his expression resumed its usual calm demeanor and he turned back to me.

"I must go check on my Lord, thank you for speaking with me, Sir Cyrus." He turned and began to leave.

"Oh, wait!" I called, He turned to face me again. "I'm actually looking for Lord Azel, have you seen him?"

"Yes, last I saw him he was in lady Aideen's room, in the west tower."

"Thank you, Finn."

"Your most welcome, Sir Cyrus."

_Lady Aideen's room, but why? _I thought as I walked towards the west tower.

———————————————————————

"Sigurd." Quan spoke.

"Yes Quan?" I asked.

I was currently in Jungby's main throne room, running through paper work with Oifey, trying to organize relief work for the denizens of Jungby castle.

"I wish to speak with you about Sir Cyrus." He gave a pointed glance at Oifey.

...

"Oifey, would you mind waiting in the hall?" I requested.

Oifey nodded and left.

While we waited for Oifey to reach the doors of the hall, I took time to observe Quans behavior.

From an outward glance he seemed perfect normal, his usual stoic expression on his face, yet I had been his friend for many years and knew the subtle signs that gave away his emotions.

His hands were twitching at his sides, his face drawn into a tighter line that usual, and his posture was stiff.

He was nervous, or worried.

Quan was almost never worried.

The door gave a soft _click _as Oifey left.

"Tell me, what troubles you about Sir Cyrus."

"Are you sure that he is who he says he is?" Quan asked.

I was intrigued by the question, I myself thought that Sir Cyrus seemed to be an exemplary Royal Guard, while his magical talent was a bit out of the ordinary, I had not doubted his identity in the slightest after I saw him fight.

"I'm partial to believing him, but I'm interested as to why you doubt him?"

"He looks like me, if I was less muscular, I could be standing in front of a mirror." He said.

"That's true..."

"He uses wind magic, odd for a knight of the royal guard to use magic and martial weapons isn't it?"

"It's not unheard of, but yes, it is quite rare."

"I asked Lord Azel about him, he said he had never known this man until today."

I paused. "That... that is reasonable cause for suspicion."

Quan nodded. "And what's more, I need to tell you something of my family breifly..."

I motioned for him to continue speaking.

"My fathers sister, Aeif, married the Duke Daccar of Zaxon. Gave birth to two children, my cousins, a girl named Hezel, and a boy named Tulen."

I started to see what he was getting at.

"She died giving birth to Tulen, however, my father has kept a few spies in Zaxon, to keep an eye on his sisters children. And last month, his spies reported Tulen had gone missing."

"And so you think Cyrus is Tulen in disguise?"

"Yes."

I stared silently towards the window, looking out at the night sky.

"We shouldn't interrogate him immediately, so far he has followed orders and shown us nothing but respect. He also saved Sir Finn's life earlier, correct?" I asked

Quan nodded hesitantly.

"Therefore it's safe to assume that for now, he has no ill will towards us, do you have any idea why Tulen left Silesse?"

Quan shook his head. "No, he simply up and left without telling a single person, not even his sister, who seemed distraught at his disappearance."

I regarded that silently for a few seconds, before asking another question.

"Didn't Prince Lewyn of Silesse also disappear mysteriously? Perhaps the two incidents are related somehow?"

"Perhaps, but as far as I know my fathers agents found nothing as to how and why they both disappeared, the Silessian nobility is remarkably silent and closed off about their internal politics."

"..."

"..."

Quan sighed.

"I'll follow your lead for now and not interrogate him, but we need to keep an eye on him, alright?"

"Alright Quan, I will."

"I will send Oifey back in. Goodnight, Sigurd."

"Thanks, Goodnight Quan."

I sighed, this buisness of Verdane was perplexing enough as it is, but now apparently he had a disguised Silessian nobleman in his cadre?

I rubbed my eyes, politics made me weary.

Hopefully the rest of my mission would be easier.

———————————————————————

**AN: Thanks for reading! Probably won't have another update till next week.**

**Reviews are appreciated.**

**Have a good one, folks!**


	10. A Stay at Jungby

The halls of Jungby keep were spacious stone passages, adorned with symbology of bows and arrows on the walls. The keep were obviously designed for comfort over safety, with fine wooden floors and lavish decoration. I walked through the halls, heading for Lady Aideen's room, when I arrived, I knocked on the double doors of oak.

"Lord Azel? Are you in there?" I called.

...

No response.

"Lord Azel?"

...

Screw it, I'm going in.

I opened the door, and my breath was taken away,

Paintings trimmed with gold lined the walls, a large deer skin covered the oak floor, lavishness upon lavishness lay across the room.

This was most certainly the room of a noblewoman.

Azel was there, sitting on one of the fine chairs, he was staring with a vacant expression at one of the paintings.

"Lord Azel?"

...

Something was definitely wrong.

I moved to sit in the chair beside him, and I gave a good look at the painting in front of us.

It was a portrait of a woman sitting down, with golden hair and a white dress, with a beautiful smile.

"Is that Lady Aideen, Lord Azel?"

He nodded, still not saying a word.

...

"M'lord, please tell me what's wrong."

He finally turned his face towards me,

"Sir Cyrus, when was the first time you killed a man?"

Oh, that's what's bothering him.

"... I was ten." I said. His eyes widened in surprise.

"H-How?"

I took that to mean '_how could you?' _

"It was self defense."

"I see."

...

"Lord Azel. Was today the first time you killed a man?" I asked.

He nodded.

"W-When me and Lex were ambushed, and you arrived." He spoke shakily. "Lex was killing them easily, without breaking a sweat. But I was terrified, I ran."

"So the first man you killed..."

"He was the axeman who almost struck you from behind."

"I see."

...

"I still hear his screaming as he was burnt in my head, it was..."

"Horrifying." I finished.

"And then, when we were fighting in the battle, I kept hesitating, where as everyone else was killing the defenseless soldiers without a second thought."

Tears began to stream from his eyes.

"Lex broke his arm taking a blow for me, I could've killed the soldier, but I hesitated..."

He was choking up.

"I was too afraid to kill... I was so afraid of hearing the screams again." He turned towards me.

"I'm too weak for this, Cyrus. But I'm afraid of the shame I would feel if I went back home now."

And now he was crying in full, his sobs racking his body. I put an arm on his shoulder.

"Azel, when I first killed a man. I locked myself in my room for 3 days." I spoke softly.

He looked up at me. I pulled out a handkerchief and gave it to him.

"I couldn't stop crying, every night I refused to sleep because in my dreams I would see his face, the man I killed." He was wiping his tears with the handkerchief. "But finally my sister kicked down my door and said 'Brother, did you want to kill that man?' And I kept saying 'No' over, and over, and over again. And then she spoke once more, 'do you regret it?' And I said 'yes'"

"And then she said. 'Brother. If you had killed a man without regret, I would've struck you down myself, because only a wicked man enjoys killing.'" Azel was staring at me. "'And Brother, to grieve over a man you killed showed me that you hate and abhor killing. You have nothing to be sorry for anymore, your grief was repentance in itself.'"

Azel had stopped crying.

"Azel." I spoke firmer. "Sigurd, Quan, Lex, Noish, Finn, Alec, and I, we hate killing. Yet unlike you, we are older, and have killed before."

"But they-"

"-didnt cry after killing? Again, we've killed before, we're used to the pain of regret it causes."

He regarded the information silently.

"Your only 14, Azel, if killing didn't make you scared, you are either stronger than any man I've ever known, or you are truely wicked."

". . ."

"Why do you fight, Azel?"

"To rescue Aideen." He spoke with new resolve.

I smiled. "That's a good reason to fight."

"Do you think we'll find her?"

"I-"

Just as I was about to answer. A servant burst into the room.

"Lord Azel! Sir Cyrus!"

"Yes?" Me and Azel both spoke.

"You must come quickly, Duke Arvis has arrived!"

———————————————————————

"So Lord Sigurd! You've reclaimed Jungby!" Arvis spoke.

Duke Arvis, flanked by three of his royal knights, were staring at me in Jungby's main hall. Honestly I was quite surprised.

"My Lord Duke! I was not expecting you! Please make yourselves welcome."

Arvis smiled, "I'm afraid I do not much time to spare here, I bare a message from the King."

My eyes widened "what does his majesty say?"

"He has given you orders to to invade Verdane with the force you currently have at your disposal."

The forces currently at my- what forces!?!

"I-I see." What was this, some cruel jest? Did his majesty believe 11 men were able to conquer an entire country!?! Arvis spoke again.

"However he understands that you have little men at your disposal, but he admits he has none to spare. But what he does have, is a gift."

One of the knights handed Arvis a sword in its sheath.

"This sword is a heirloom of the royal house, he wishes you to wield it in battle in his name."

My eyes widened. A royal heirloom! To me, lowly heir to the Dukedom of Grannvale!

"This gift is too fine for the likes of me, Duke Arvis!"

He smiled.

"Your humility is noted, but to refuse such a gift would insult our King!"

I paused, of course! How embarrassing!

"T-then I shall take it. And I promise I will return it when Verdane has been pacified."

"I knew you were up to the task Lord Sigurd. Now that buisness is over-" he handed me the sword.

It was beautiful, the hilt was ingraved with a sapphire, and the blade itself shone like Silver!

"-I must now ask, is my brother Azel in your company?"

I took my eyes away from the sword. And nodded.

"Yes, in fact I sent for him as soons as you arriv-"

"Lord Brother!"

Lord Azel and Sir Cyrus dashed into the room.They knelt in front of the Duke, and stood up once more

"Ah, there you are! I was quite worried, Azel." Arvis chided.

Azel blushed. "I'm sorry, I should've informed you before I left. Forgive me, please."

Arvis's face changed for a moment, his eyes softened and his smile less confident.

"While your decision was quite rash, I forgive you Azel. And," he glanced at Sir Cyrus. "For as long as Sir Cyrus is guarding you, I will permit your being in Sigurds forces."

So, Sir Cyrus _is _Duke Arvis's knight, Quan's suspicion was unfounded then.

"Thank you Lord Brother! I'll make our family proud!"

Arvis smiled, "of that, I never had doubt."

He turned towards me. "Alas, I have tarried far to long Lord Sigurd, I must return to the Capitol."

"Farewell, Duke Arvis." I said.

"Farewell, and go in the Kings name Lord Sigurd!"

And as Arvis and his company turned to leave, he turned to whisper something in Sir Cyrus's ear.

_What could he be whispering to him? _I wondered.

———————————————————————

"Lewyn is traveling the villages near Agusty, my spies confirmed it with their own eyes." Arvis whispered to me.

"Thank you, M'lord." I whispered back.

"Keep up the act, I believe Prince Quan is somewhat suspicious of you, no?"

I felt my face tighten to a grim line, and nodded.

"Hopefully what I say next will ease their suspicions." He whispered.

He straightened up, and said rather loudly:

"Those are your orders, Sir Cyrus."

I nodded once more.

"And they'll be carried out, My Duke."

He smiled, and left the hall, his knights following suit.

———————————————————————

**An: thanks for reading, reviews are appreciated! I'm doing this fanfic for writing experience so any critiques and/or corrections are appreciated.**

**Have a good one, folks!**


	11. Injuries

After Duke Arvis left, Azel's face went from a nervous smile to a face of pure relief. I guess Arvis might've ordered Azel to return, which unless Azel wanted to cause a serious incident which would hurt his brothers reputation by refusing, would be forced to accept.

Oh well, all's well that ends well.

"Sir Cyrus?" Sigurd spoke.

"Yes M'lord?" I answered

"Would you mind doing me a favor? That is, if Lord Azel doesn't object."

Azel shrugged "not at all."

"Well then" Sigurd spoke, "would you mind scouting Castle Evans with Sir Finn for me? I would usually send my own knights, but they are injured."

Wait, wasn't Finn injured as well? He couldn't have healed up that fast, he couldn't use vulnerary because he broke 2 ribs!

"It wouldn't be an issue at all, M'lord" I replied, hiding my confusion

"Splendid! It would be well you left tomorrow morning, the two of you could reach there in a little under a day if I estimate correctly" Sigurd said cheerfully.

"As you order, M'lord."

"Now, with that settled." Sigurd rubbed his hands together. "I do believe it's time for dinner."

———————————————————————

The 'dinner' we enjoyed was better described as a miniature feast.

Roasted elk, (who could've guessed it was a Jungby specialty with 100 stuffed elks adorning the walls of keep! So shocking!) and Roasted duck with mead, peaches and a few other fruits. Made up the meal.

We all were dining together, even the injured.(watching Lex attempt to eat with his broken arm was hilarious)

I was seated on the left hand side of the long table where we dined. Sigurd was at the head with Quan at his right and Oifey at his left.

I was seated inbetween Finn and Lex, and directly across from Alec, Noish, and Midyr.

I kept glancing at Finn's suprisingly unscathed body over and over again, wondering how on hell's mighty earth he healed so quickly. While for the most part it was small talk, like '_how are your injuries' _or _'Lex for the love of the Gods please use your other arm to hold the Damn fork.' _Finn decided to talk to me about our mission tomorrow.

"I think we should stop at the neighboring villages along the way to make sure there aren't any Verdanians left in the area." He said.

"That seems reasonable." I said inbetween bites. "Though we shouldn't dally in any of them for to long."

He nodded.

"You guys have a mission? May I come then?" Lex spoke.

"Your shoulder bandage is leaking blood again." I replied.

"Ah damn!" He quickly pressed his arm against it.

Muffled laughter wracked our small group

"Hmph," Lex pouted. "Still don't understand why I'm not allowed to apply vulnerary to my wounds..."

"Lex, your arm is broken, applying vulnerary would cause the bones to reset incorrectly." Finn answered.

Oh really Finn...

"Pfff..." Lex just blew off the logic, he would voice the same complaint later for sure.

"Besides, it's a reconnaissance mission, doubt you'd be interested." I attempted to assure his bruised ego.

"Scouting Castle Evans then? That might be hard..." Midyr said

"Why?" I asked

"Castle Evans In protected by a river that runs from the Agusty mountains to the sea, it's the only gate way into Jungby, if you want to get there, you're going to have to swim partway."

Ah, that's a complication.

"We might have to revise our travel estimates then."

Finn nodded.

"Thank you for the information Midyr." Finn stated.

Midyr smiled. "Well, we're allies now. It would be terrible if me not to inform you of such a fact in advance."

After that our conversations reverted back to meaningless chatter.

But i noticed something off about Finn, he kept rubbing his previously broken ribs with his hand once and awhile, making me wonder if they were still causing pain to him and he was just sucking it up for 'duty' or some other paragon'ish attribute.

Then he glanced at Lady Ethlyn.

...

Wait...

Finn you sneaky bastard.

———————————————————————

Finn and I set out before the sun rose the next day, hoping the early start would help us deal with any problems that may arise that could slow us down.

We stopped at several of the surrounding villages, gathering information on the terrain and if there were any remaining Verdanites in Jungby. To our great luck, there weren't any, they had all ran for the border as soon as we took the castle.

Two hours past noon we settled down for a break by a stream. Eating lunch and letting our horses drink the cold flowing water.

"I'm suprised your wounds healed fast enough to make this mission with me Finn." I said.

"It was nothing a vulnerary couldn't have fixed." His face was drawn into a tight line

"Pretty unfortunate all of the others broke something, regular healing is a slow progress."

Finn grimaced "Yes, it most certainly is."

We sat in silence for a few more seconds.

"I know for a fact you broke a couple of ribs, Finn."

He looked at me, startled. "I-I most certainly did not-"

"You're also a terrible liar." I should know, I am one!

...

That's not something to be proud of isn't it.

"W-well, it's just that Lady Ethlyn insisted that I-"

"I see, your Lady was showing favoritism? I thought she was 'recouperating her magic' after the battle?" I asked.

Finn looked ashamed for spilling the secret. "I told her that would be best, but was so flustered about my health and she brought her heal staff-"

"Forced genorosity? What happened next, she gave you puppy dog eyes when you attempted to refuse?" I joked.

Finn turned away and blushed.

". . . My gods." I said. "And you caved into that?"

Finn said nothing

I couldn't help it, I doubled over and started laughing.

"Oh come on now!" Finn exclaimed. "This is highly unprofessional Sir Cyrus!"

I was wiping a tear from my eye. "Y-Yes of course, I should act more like the knight I am."

I straightened up, put on a barely-maintained serious expression. And looked at Finn.

He was blushing so red it looked as if his head would explode any minute.

I doubled over laughing again.

"OH FOR NOVA'S SAKE ITS NOT FUNNY CYRUS!"

———————————————————————

**An: this was mostly filler, but thanks for reading.**

**Reviews are appreciated, including yours Heroking121!**

**_Heroking121: _As far as Azel goes... I haven't finished exploring him yet, I want him to be a more important character to this story, and will get more screen time (page time?) than other characters. So I'll explore my interpretation of his feelings towards his brother later.**

**I need to pick up the pace, I'm dragging through the prologue and chapter 1 is kind of a beefy chapter story wise.**

**Have a good one, folks!**


	12. River crossing

As me and Finn continued our journey, I couldn't help but chuckle every now and then. Oh the sheer _joy I had teasing Finn was the most fun I have had in months._

Months... yes... it has been a long time sense I've seen my home. The beautiful valleys of Silesse, which were cradled by her tall mountains in their majestic splendor.

_Homesick already... _I thought to myself.

"We've reaches the river." Finn stated.

I shock myself from my wandering thoughts, too much of a distraction. Finn was right, we had indeed at the river. A brilliant blue body of water that seemed to cut through the horizon north to south. Dividing the plains of Jungby from the plains of Verdane.

And more importantly, someone cut down the damn bridge adjoining the lands.

"Seems Midyr was right, we have too swim." I sighed.

Finn glanced at the waters. And started removing his armor.

I averted my eyes "Hey! A little warning before you strip!"

I could feel his confused gaze resting on me.

"I-, no, _we _have to take off our armor before we swim correct?" He took another glance at the water "after all, the current is moving at such a pace we could be easily swept away by the weight of our armor."

I blushed, "y-yes of course, how could I forget?"

Yeah a Royal guard should probably know this, shouldn't they? Hell, I should know this even without being a royal guard! Nurseries told the story of unwary crusaders jumping water to cool themselves, only to drown!

"Perhaps your constant chuckling shook your brains to such a state you can't think?" Finn remarked.

...

When did he get good at snappy insults?

I decided not to respond, I stripped off my armor. And we both tethered our horses.

Then we looked at our weapons.

"We can't swim with those, too heavy..." Finn said.

I contempted the problem for a second... wait a minute!

...

No that wouldn't work. Lances would be too unevenly balanced and awkward too... but wait.

Wasn't Finn using that in the last battle?

I looked at Finn, he had his sword.

I grabbed Finns short sword.

"Hey what are you doing!-"

I grabbed my wind tome and started channeling a spell, Finn (wisely) backed away.

My spell was charged, I chucked the sword across the water. And then I threw my tome. The moment the tome left my grasp I cast my spell.

Wind roared and caught both items, carrying them across the river to the other side, landing with a soft _thunk._

Finn just stared at me.

I smirked, I was momentarily worried the energy I absorbed from the tome to cast wind being released at the tome itself might've caused some sort of paradox... luckily we survived

"Impressive, eh Fi-"

"Why couldn't you have catapulted _us _across the river?" Finn cut me off.

I was stunned, how dare he not recognize the sheer brilliance that encompassed my perfect intellect!

"I could've only cast it at one of us." I stated

"Couldn't we have jumped simultaneously and cast it below us? I believe the wind blast could've hit the ground and ricocheted behind us, causing it to launch us into the air?" He asked.

...

What the- that's impos-

...

Actually, that might be doable with an elwind.

...

But how the ABSOLUTE * did he know that?!?!?

"With an Elwind, maybe... but how did you theorize this? Your not one to dabble in magic, are you?"

Finn shook his head

"I only asked because I saw Prince Lewyn once do it. With a wind spell when showing off in Castle Leonster during a state visit."

...

This is your fault. Lewyn, you attention wh-

"Um, Cyrus!" Finn was waving a hand in front of my face.

Guess I started zoning out, picturing the eventual beat down I would give my cousin when I found him.

"W-well, _Ahem._ That's because Prince Lewyn is the heir of the Forsetti bloodline, wind is practically an extension of his body. Like a lance is for Sir Quan." I responded.

I looked at my hands.

I remembered that state visit. I was thankfully spared from 'showing off' my nonexsistant skills. That had been my sister's responsibility.

"Cyrus? I tethered the horses. Shall we cross the river now?"

_Even with my minor blood, Lewyn will always be leagues above me..._

I looked up.

"Yeah, let's get going."

———————————————————————

Crossing the river was of little difficulty, in fact, it was so easy it made me feel silly about how much work we had put into preparing our crossing.

We retrieved our weapons from the shore, my tome, his sword. And set out towards the rather close shape of Castle Evans.

The annoying wet squish of my waterlogged boots against the earth began to anger me immensely.

"Say Finn, why did you start carrying a sword? I thought you were more of a lance specialist." I asked

"I do consider myself a lance specialist, however, it came to my attention that I was rather helpless dismounted, and my lances are to clunky for ground combat" replied replied.

Fair, he did almost die when he got knocked off his horse.

We kept walking towards the castle.

"How did you pick up wind magic? Out of all the schools of magic why wind?" Finn asked.

_Because of my bloodline_ I wanted to say. But I contented myself with:

"It channels faster than the other schools of magic, meaning I can use it more reliably as a back up weapon." It wasn't a lie, mind you, just not the true main reason I used wind magic.

Finn seemed satisfied by the response. And we continued towards the castle silently.

———————————————————————

"So, that's their army." Finn observed.

We were hiding in a small patch of trees east of the castle, viewing the enemy army exiting the castle in a column formation.

"They're going on the offensive, eh?" I said.

Finn nodded.

"Best head back now, Sigurd will need this intel as fast as possible so we can prepare." Finn said

"I'd wager that's around fifty, fifty-five men give or take? I'm assuming they'll keep a few in the castle for total protection." I guessed

"Outnumbered five-to-one... don't like this."

"Neither do I Finn, neither do I..."

———————————————————————

**An: Thanks for reading, feel free to review! I'm doing this mostly for writing experience so critiques/corrections are appreciated.**

**Have a good one, folks!**


	13. Bloodriver

**Tulen POV**

"You estimate that they'll arrive tomorrow night at the earliest?" Sigurd said.

Finn and I had made it back to the castle, and had just finished giving our report to Lord Sigurd.

"If they keep up the pace that they were marching at when we last saw them, yes." I replied.

Sigurd sighed, And stood up from his chair.

"Sir Finn, Sir Cyrus, please inform the army that we're heading out tomorrow, the only people to remain here are Arden and Lex." Sigurd said.

My eyes shot up in surprise. Abandon our fortifcations, and therefore our defensive advantage. To take a vastly uneven fight in the open? Had Sigurd gone mad!?!

It seemed Finn was thinking something akin to my own thoughts.

"My lord, with all due respect, shouldn't we wait for the army here? Where we have the defensive advantage-"

"That was an order, not a request." Sigurd said bluntly.

I was too stunned to speak. I suddenly remembered that I was merely a knight, and Sigurd was currently my pseudo-commander. I saluted, and promptly left, Finn close behind.

———————————————————————

**Sigurd POV**

Perhaps I had been a bit too blunt in my dismissal of Finn and Cyrus. Oh well, no doubts Ethlyn will find time to chew me out later.

But currently I was busy pulling out a map of the surrounding countryside. I analyzed the roads the Verdanites would be most likely to take, and editing the map where the scouts new info proved useful.

We could only win this in a ambush, a siege would not go well at all due to the attritional factor being on their side, and I was loath to put the populace in any further danger, better a short decisive engagement than a long and costly one.

"You're observational skills leave something to be desired Sigurd." A voice said.

I looked up, startled to see Quan in the doorway.

"Have you come to complain about my decision?" I said, straightening myself up.

"I did, but you seem quite focused on planning your battle, so I would like to help. I presume you mean to ambush them?" Quan said.

I nodded, "Yes, any ideas?" I showed him the map.

He took a seat on the desk opposite to me and took in the information. His face tightened into that oh so fimiliar slight frown and deep stare.

"First, tell me how fast our enemies are advancing?"

I smiled, always practical, just like back in the academy... Quan hadn't changed at all in these past years.

"Around a kilometer and a half per hour if our scouts estimations are correct..."

———————————————————————

**Tulen POV**

After informing the army that we would be leaving tomorrow morning, I was promptly re-informed that we would be leaving within the hour.

Yeah thanks a lot, Sigurd. Whatever plan you and Quan concocted better be worth it.

And I was looking towards the comfort of a real bed too... but no, seemed that we were eternally destined for fallen leaves to act as our mattress's.

So now I'm with Finn, again, riding in the front of column to make sure we don't get lost.

We didn't take a break until right before sunset, Sigurd aunnounced that the small clearing we found was as good a campsite as we could hope for, and we settled in for the night.

I couldn't sleep.

Perhaps it was the anticipation of the coming battle,

I didn't know for sure. But I decided to go on a little walk.

The stars were bright, proudly showing off their constellations against the black sky. I felt a pang of longing for my home land as I recalled the Aurora's that lit up our skies in the winter.

I smiled, how fond I felt for the days where my sister would take me for rides on her Pegasus, we would dance in the sky for hours simply bantering and enjoying each others company.

"Cyrus? What are you doing up so late?" Someone whispered.

I was just barely able to make out the shadowy outline of Noish's face in the scant moonlight, guess he was the one on guard duty.

"Can't sleep." I whispered back

"Why? I thought you were tired from the scouting mission?"

"I am, but I'm even more tired of sleeping on the ground."

A peaceful silence reigned for a moment.

"I could find a nice rock for you to lay your head against." Noish whispered.

"A bit late with the comeback, you might need to work on your timing." I whispered back

"You're awfully sassy for a royal guardsman, I thought you were trained to be far more polite than this."

"We are, but you've all, quite unfortunately may I add, rubbed off on me the past few days."

"Did they teach you quick wordplay as well?" He retorted, causing me to smirk.

"Our lessons were quite diverse and well-rounded."

I got a snort from Noish on that last one.

"Well my shift is almost up, it's Alec's turn next but..." he trailed off.

"His arms been bothering him still?" I whispered.

"Yeah, and sense you're having trouble sleeping I thought-"

"No problem, go get some rest. Who was supposed to come after Alec?"

"Finn." He said

"Alright."

I found a comfortable tree to lean on, and waited for a bit. Staring at the stars.

It was quiet.

It was peaceful.

It was quite unsuited for the day ahead.

———————————————————————

The sun filtered in through the trees, hitting my bleary eyes and forcing me to raise a hand so I could see.

The others were already packing up camp, I quickly singled out Sigurd, who noticed me and started walking towards me.

"Ah, you're awake Sir Cyrus! I though we would've had to get the water bucket, you were sleeping quite soundly." Sigurd spoke, a wide grin on his face.

"I-I'm sorry sir, I should've woken up far earlier and for that I apolog-"

"There's nothing to apologize for," Sigurd said. "I've been having you work non-stop and haven't given you a rest, I intentionally let you sleep in after I found out you covered for Alec last night."

So he was repaying the favor for letting his knight rest? Truly, this man was the embodiment of good chivalry.

"Just make sure your ready for combat as soon as possible, Quan and I already know where our ambush point will be and Noish scouted the army ahead quite some time ago." He ordered.

"Yes, Lord Sigurd." I gave a slight half bow.

I put on my armor and made sure Elytia was ready for combat, checked my weapons (and the emergency vulnerary.) and found everything to be in suitable condition.

Sigurd quickly called everyone together shortly after, and we headed to the ambush point.

If there's one thing I could say Sigurd and Quan were good at, it was battle strategy. The ambush point was glorious, it was a forest road, that narrowed into a bridge to cross over a fast running creek.

"Anyone who falls in there will be drowned by there own armor." Alec muttered, I nodded.

"Alright! Here's the plan!" Sigurd Said in a commanding tone. "Our enemy should reach this point in around half an hour, when they do, I want Azel to burn the bridge, which we lathered with oil, while they cross. And I want us to attack from behind and force them in the stream, remember. We're outnumbered so we need to strike swiftly and cause as much disorganization as possible. Midyr, you need to aim for any higher ranking soldiers among there army, break the chain of command." Midyr nodded. "Take no prisoners, crush every last one of them."

With those words out of the way we went to our hiding spots. We made a rather loose semi circle around the bridgehead. I was waiting nearby Azel's position, he was sitting on the ground, his arms wrapped around his knees. His eyes locked to the ground below him.

And he was shaking.

I turned my gaze away from him, and resumed my watchful position behind a tree.

Ten minutes passed.

Ten more.

Finally the enemy came into view, we all prepared.

Except Azel, who was still shaking on the ground.

5 minutes passed, they were nearing the bridge.

"Psst, Azel!" I whispered fiercely, attempting to get the red-haired kids attention, but to no avail. I picked up a small rock, no more than a pebble, really, and tossed it at him.

He nearly jumped, and looked wildly around for the source of the pebble. His eyes met mine, and I pointed towards the approaching enemy. I saw Azel swallow thickly, he was afraid.

I sighed, this kid was going to be a handful.

5 minutes passed, the Verdanians were finally stepping onto the bridge.

Azel met my eyes again. I mouthed _'burn it.' _

He took a deep breath, summoned his magic, jumped up and cast his fire spell. It soared through the arc, shooting straight into the wooden bridge, it hit the oil and the bridge practically exploded with flame. The Verdanians screamed.

"CHARGE!" Sigurds commanding voice rung over the screams, and all hell broke loose.

In an instant our surrounding cavalry dashed into the enemy forces rear, combined with the flames, the Verdanians became so terrified they began to run instead of standing their ground. In their folly some jumped into the river, were weighed down by their armor, and promptly drowned.

It was a slaughter. I stabbed, cast, and charged my way through it without thinking, I barely thought about what I was doing as the instinctual fighter in me took control.

5 minutes, it took 5 minutes for us to kill all of them.

Not a single casualty, not a single enemy left standing.

I stabbed a corpse just to make sure it was dead, and gazed the battlefield. I picked out Noish and Alec checking the other corpses, so I left that dirty work to them.

I searched for Sigurd, and found him and Quan side by side overlooking the carnage.

"Lord Sigurd." I called, catching the blunette's attention, "shall we press forward to Evans?"

He nodded, "Once Noish and Alec are finished checking the bodies, we shall head there immediately." He looked around, stretching in his saddle, "Where's Azel?"

Azel? Shouldn't he be over by the woods-

Why wasn't he by the woods?

I held back a swear and cantered off towards where I last saw him, desperately searching.

"Azel? Lord Azel!" I called out, "Where are you-"

I found him sitting by the river, tears slowly streaming down his face.

I winced, I should've protested Sigurd's plan of making him burn that bridge... not because it was a bad idea, but...

I dismounted Elytia, and walked over to Azel, sitting right beside him in silence.

...

"We're heading out soon." I commented.

...

I sighed, this was going to go nowhere fast.

"Do you want to turn back?" I asked.

Azels red eyes flashed wide open, and he stared at me in shock, "W-what?" He asked.

I quirked an eyebrow, "I said do you want to turn back, abandon the campaign, and go back to the Capitol?"

He sputtered, "B-but I cant do tha-!"

"You can." I interrupted. Damn, I was really pushing my luck by interrupting my current liege. I shuddered at the thought of Arvis preparing his Valflame. "If you want to, we can pick up Lex and get out of here."

"That's not what a knight should do-" he tried to speak.

"And you're not a knight." I retorted, "you're a 14 year-old Noble who's already done enough to win his spurs." I watched his face carefully as emotions flickered across it, from confusion to fear to anger to sadness and back to confusion.

"I-I want to rescue Aideen, I want to." He said, wiping his tears with his sleeve. "But... I'm not sure if I can handle it... it's too much, it's too much death..." he broke down sobbing again, his head on my shoulder.

I smiled sadly, this kid... really shouldn't be out here fighting, he was too kind for his own good, he should've been a healer or something, not studying destructive magic.

"Hey, it's ok." I said, patting the boy on the back, in that moment I felt my mask of 'Cyrus' slip, and I began to speak casually, "it's not that you're weak, you're young. You've been brave enough to come this far-"

"But I can't turn back!" He cried, "What will the others think of me!"

I winced, and sighed, honesty was probably the best way to go about this.

"They'll say that you're a young kid who needed to grow some more before taking to the battlefield." I stated, "But they'll probably miss your skills. You were instrumental in today's victory."

Azel's tears subsided, and he looked up at me. His eyes were utterly miserable, "I can't turn back." He repeated. "I have to save Aideen."

He stood up, and for the first time the sorrow in his eyes cleared slightly, and a hint of resolve shone through. I smiled, he was determined now.

Internally, however, I groaned in frustration. I had been _so _close to finishing this mission and getting a free pass to look for that philandering dastard Prince. _So _damn close.

"Lord Azel, mount up on Elytia with me, it'll make the journey back to the group faster." I said, offering the boy a hand. Which in response he smiled, and accepted.

———————————————————————

**An: Uh... So I'm not dead. **

**Essentially I got embarrassed with this story, I got really critical with how I was writing things and general and kinda had to take a (overly long) step back. Honestly? I didn't expect to return... but screw it, I've been playing Thracia recently and got a hell of a lot of ideas for the future of this fic.**

**This is a double upload as a reward to y'all poor gentlemen who've waited so long. Review response will be on the next chapter.**

**Have a good one, Folks!**


	14. Evans

"For a castle on the border, Evans surrendered pretty quickly, no?" Finn asked.

We were in Evans mere hours after the battle by the river. And luckily for us, the population seemed downright amiable to the notion of occupation. Finn and I were standing on one of the castles balcony's that's overlooked the area of Evans.

"From what I gathered, the Verdanian army had been hoarding up all the food and putting a strain on the castle, that, combined with the fact we essentially slaughtered said army in the span of a few minutes seems to have made them think we're some sort of super-men." I remarked idly, taking a sip of my drink.

Finn raised an eyebrow, "where'd you get that tea?"

"If I knew, I wouldn't tell." I took another sip.

Ah, bless Finn's pure heart for assuming that I was drinking tea, it would be a bad look for me to admit I was in the possession of Silesse's 3rd finest export, alcohol.

"Anyways, I need to go check up on my liege." I stated, "Lex and Arden are due to arrive tomorrow, correct?"

Finn nodded, "From what I've heard, yes."

Bless you Forsetti, I was really getting worried about Azel's continued separation from his one friend on this journey.

I left the balcony, and made my way through the halls. I couldn't help but notice how... bland they were. Not a single decoration, suit of armor, flake of gold nor engraved item in the rooms or the halls. Which considering the general carnal need for the grandiose and flashy among the nobility of Jugdral, was rather odd.

I stopped a nearby servant and asked him about it.

The servant frowned, he was an elderly man, "Well, yer Lordship, there used to be plenty o'decoration round' the halls. But Prince Gandolf's hired men stripped 'em clean and used that as their payment for fighting."

I furrowed my eyebrows, "'hired men?' Those were mercenaries?"

The old servant snorted, "Mercenaries my keister! Common bandits an' pickpockets more like it, we can't afford to arm the common peasant folk. And we got no combat skilled nobles to speak of save the Princes, our treasury is strapped from about 10-years o' poor crop harvest worth little value." His face assumed a rather somber expression, "I think you can understand why we surrendered to ya yer Lordship. We got little hope of our armies winning."

Right... that explains their willingness to cooperate. That, coupled with Sigurd's promises that the war was merely to rescue lady Aideen in retaliation made a pretty compelling case to surrender.

I thanked the old man and continued to Azel's room, and to my luck, he seemed to be in better spirits than the last two times we had a private conversation. He was on his bed reading his fire tome.

"Lord Azel, how are you holding up?" I asked.

He looked up, slightly startled, but quickly recovered, "I-I'm fine, Sir Cyrus, I was just trying to catch a moments respite." He quirked his head slightly, "I seem to recall that Sir Quan was looking for you, did you see him yet?"

I hid my grimace, my most royal cousin dearest (no, not the womanizing bastard, the other married one.) was perhaps the last person I wanted a little 'chat' with. Probably due to my extreme paranoia about him finding out my true identity.

Ah, crippling paranoia, you old intolerable friend.

"I haven't, but I'll look for him-" (lie) "-and leave you to your respite, good night, M'lord."

He smiled, "Good night, Sir Cyrus."

I left Azel's room, and almost immediately ran for my own, determined not to get caught by-

"Hello, Sir Cyrus." Quan stepped in front of me.

GODS DAMNIT.

I skidded to a halt, "O-oh, hello. Lord Quan! I was looking for you."

The brunette nodded, "As was I... I was hoping we might have a conversation in private?"

I swallowed thickly, and weakly nodded. There was no way on the Crusader's green earth I was getting away from this.

"Good, onto the subject at hand..." Quan continued, "Who are you?"

SCHISSE!

"I am Sir Cyrus, Royal-guard knight in the service of Duke Arvis of Velthomer." I responded carefully.

Quan nodded, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Sir Cyrus, I need to know something."

Crap, "Yes?" I responded hesitantly.

"Can I trust you?" Quan asked.

I did a double-take, what on earth-

And then it hit me, the question was a guilt-trip.

If I said yes to his question, then I would be lying, because I was not who I said I was. If I said no, my cover was blown.

When on earth did my Royal Cousin become so subtle?!

"Prince Quan," I began after a pause, "I assure you, everything I do is for the benefit of those I'm trying to protect." I replied evasively, it was a shield of truth to block Quan's strike in search of honesty. As everything I was doing was to restore Silesse back to a tenable situation and protect the country, but it also reaffirmed my comittment to protect Azel.

Quan's eyebrows furrowed, he saw through my evasive phrasing, "But can I _trust _you, Sir Cyrus?"

I swallowed, his directness combined with my need to hide my identity was destroying his respect for me by the second.

"You can trust my prior answer, Prince Quan. I swear by it." I dodged again, visibly frustrating the Leonsterian Prince. However, his anger, while not evaporating, seemed to chill.

"I see." He said simply, "Good night, Sir _Cyrus._"

He walked past me, and I stood frozen. The extra weight he added on my name... damn it all, he knew who I was, I had feared as much... but to hear it confirmed...

I sighed, I couldn't trust him. No matter our blood relation, a _'true knight' _would never understand my method, perhaps my motive, but never my method. Deceit was my only defense among the other nobles, I had neither the power of Major holy blood, the tactical mind of a strategist, nor the sheer magical or combative skill of my so called 'peers.'

Even my sister knew this... Hezel always warned me to never go toe to toe with giants. Quan, and other knightly men would never understand my need for secrecy, my need for lies. I may be a snake, but I'm a snake for good reasons. A bullsnake killed the other, more venomous snakes around it.

I grit my teeth, all of this. And I mean _all _of this was that bastard's Lewyn's fault, if he had not run like he did... I sighed, relaxing my shoulders and letting go of my anger, that bastard had cost me too much of my mental sanity already.

What mattered was that Quan had Sigurd's ear and trust, and Sigurd was the armies commander, I could easily be thrown out of this whole affair. And I didn't want to find out if being forced out of the mission was what Arvis considered to be a 'Valflammable' offense.

———

The next day, I was in the courtyard, enjoying a brief respite from the fighting, planning, and strategizing. An emissary from Belhalla had ridden in earlier to tell Sigurd that he had gotten permission to delve further into Verdane. So I had a helluva lotta work cut out for me.

But, a familiar face rode through the castle gates.

I smiled, "it's good to see you again, Sir Lex! How's arm holding up?" I called to the blunette.

He smiled, "it's fully healed up, a bit sore though." He added with a frown, stretching the limb.

I nodded, "Too be expected."

Lex resumed his grin, "So how're the others?"

"Azel's been... fine." Discounting his emotional breakdowns, "Most everyone's been rather encouraged by our successes. Especially Lord Sigurd... Sir Midyr's been especially stressed as of late, however."

"Of course he has, Lady Aideen's been captured for... a week now? That's a lot of time for something to go bad." Lex commented.

I nodded, I couldn't exactly... empathize. As I had never met Aideen, but I had seen the emotional effect of her being captured on both Azel and Midyr.

"Well, atleast Alec has been cheering Midyr up." I commented.

"Yeah, I didn't think cousins could ever be that close, they're practically brothers." His grin widened, "But my cousin and brother both hate my guts, so what do I know."

...

I know your pain too well, m'dear Lex.

"Well I better see how Azel's doing, cya round, ruffles." Lex commented, walking past me.

I sat down on a nearby bench, by Forsetti I was exhausted. Both physically and mentally, I needed an extended break...

"Well, howdy sir Cyrus!" A voice boomed from behind me, causing me to jump up in terror and let out a... _Ahem_, moderately unmanly squeak.

But it was just Arden.

"A-Ah Sir Arden! You caught me by surprise!" I stammered. The man simply laughed, and by the gods it was a _loud _laugh.

"Sorry, Sir Cyrus! I just never heard that one before! Usually people complain 'bout me being too loud, not bein' too sneaky!" And by Ced almighty I certainly see why.

I smiled, "Well, you seem to be a man of many talents, Sir Arden."

The man blushed lightly, "Ah geez, thanks, Sir Cyrus! But by the way, this blonde-haired stranger came through the gate earlier askin' to see Lord Sigurd, I dunno where 'exactly his Lordship is at the moment, you mind leadin' him...?"

"Absolutely! Where is this stranger?" I asked.

Arden jammed a thumb behind him, "Oh just over there."

...

My eyes nearly bulged out of my sockets.

...

T-that's... that sword, that hair, that _pose_.

I gulped,

The Lord of Lions, Eldigan of Nordian, was standing not 3 meters from me.

Shit.

———

**An: Aight, onto the reviews.**

**Guest: Hell yeah I updated.**

**Guest: He won't make it to the second gen (provided I manage to continue the doc that far.) but he'll have a unique OC child that I may infuse some of his personality with.**

**Anyways, sorry for the over half a year hiatus. I must now go rewrite like 3 chapters of another fic so it can be not garbage.**

**Cya round, folks!**


	15. Memories

"... Arden..." I said quietly. "Do you seriously not know who that is...?"

The bulky man gave me a befuddled look, and I resisted the urge to smack myself in the face.

"...I'll handle it." I mumbled, and cursed my luck under my breath. Why must I deal with so many Nobles? I walked towards the Lion Lord.

"Lord Eldigan! Forgive our poor reception!" I pleaded, preforming a respectful bow towards the blonde.

His piercing golden gaze was akin to being scrutinized by the sun itself, it was scorching in its intensity.

"I came here to meet with Lord Sigurd, and I'd rather not be delayed. Can you lead me to him or not?" He asked briskly. Usually I would've been peeved by such poor manners, and I was, but I wouldn't visibly show any reaction to the wielder of the demon-blade Mystletain. Mainly because I don't have a death wish.

"Of course M'lord, if you'll follow me." I gestured to my right, earning a nod for my troubles as I walked towards Sigurd's temporary office, Eldigan directly behind me.

It was quite terrifying, being in the presence of a holy weapon. I said nothing, and held my breath, the walk to Sigurd's office was brief, but it seemed to drag for an eternity with the Lion Lord behind me.

Bullsnakes can't fight lions, we usually play dead, fortunately enough the lion did not see me as a kill fit for its tastes...

I really need to cut it out with the animal analogies, they're getting far too accurate for my liking...

I knocked on Sigurd's door, "M'lord!" I called, "Lord Eldigan of Nordian is here to see you."

I heard the sound of wood sliding against wood, and fast heavy footsteps. Within a second the door swung open, revealing a shocked looking Sigurd.

"E-Eldigan?" Sigurd said, I had never seen the knight look so... undignified before.

The blonde smiled, "Sigurd! It's good to see you alive and well, but I must have a talk with you..." he glanced at me, "...alone."

Sigurd nodded, still in a daze, "Excuse us, Sir Cyrus. Come in Eldigan." The blonde entered the room and the door shut behind him.

Oh bless Forsetti! By the gods I've never felt more releaved to be _alone_. A long sigh escaped my lips, and I walked back to the courtyard, I really needed a break.

I slumped onto a bench, and caught a few blissful moments of rest and relaxation...

———

"Sir Cyrus?" A voice called.

Startled, I jumped out of the bench, my wild eyes eventually settled on the blonde in front of me, Eldigan.

"F-forgive my poor manners, Lord Eldigan!" I exclaimed, giving a quick bow.

To my surprise, the blonde merely smiled, "It's I who should be apologizing, I was quite... uncouth to you earlier, forgive me, I was not fully aware of the reason Grannvale invaded Verdane."

Oh, whew... I just figured I had managed to severely anger yet another noble due to random happenstance, an apology is a rather nice chance of pace.

"I don't blame you, M'lord. These are chaotic times." I commented, eliciting a nod from the regal blonde.

"Indeed. Well, I must be off." He mounted his horse, which reminded me that I needed to check on Elytia...

"Eldigan!" A voice rung out, both the blonde and I turned to see Quan running straight towards us, "you didn't think you could slip by without saying 'hello' to me, now did you, Eldigan?" The brunette said.

The Lion Lord's face split into a broad smile, "I wasn't even aware you were here, Quan! If I had known I would've visited... alas, I must be off soon."

Something... mischievous glinted in Quan's eye. Something I wasn't sure if I felt comfortable viewing.

"Oh, really?" Quan asked, "I thought you might be running off scared that I might best you yet again in a duel?" He mock-challenged.

Eldigan's eyes narrowed, and I gulped. I did not want to be caught in the crossfire of two angry nobles thank you very much.

Eldigan chuckled, "Things have changed Quan, with the power of Mystletain it would be a more of a difficulty to _lose_ to you than win... And I don't happen to spot the Gáe Bolg on your person," the blonde shrugged, "Though I could best you even if you did."

Quan raised an eyebrow, and laughed, "Well, well. We'll have to test that someday now, won't we?"

"Someday." Eldigan agreed, "But for now I must be off. Best of luck to your army, Sir Cyrus, Quan."

The Blonde rode out the gate. Leaving only me and my cousin, who had resumed his pseudo-glare on me once again. I swallowed thickly.

"I-I think I'll go check on my horse..." I mumbled weakly.

———

I hummed to myself as I brushed Elytia's coat, even something as simple as horse mantinence was utterly relaxing and rejuvenating to me. I smiled, after all, if one could not enjoy the simple duties of life, how could one enjoy life?

I beat the horse-brush off against my leg, and remembered the first time I had done such a thing. Back when I was 10...

~~~~~

Hezel huffed, "Brother, you're doing it wrong!"

I dropped the brush, and cast my gaze towards the ground, "S-Sorry."

My sister sighed, and stopped to pick up the brush, "No, I'm the one who should be apologizing...I shouldn't snap at you like that..." she began brushing the Horse's coat, gently coaxing it's mane with the soft brush.

"O-Oh I see." I said, taking the brush from her hands. Yet as soon as I brushed the horse, the filly began to kick and neigh as if frightened.

"W-What did I do wrong!" I yelled, frightened, I backed away from the horse.

"Shhhh." Hezel shushed, gently taking the brush from my hands, as she began to speak in a soft voice.

"Hey, Elytia... relax, it's all right." She coo'ed, the horse, as if it could understand her, calmed down, and became perfectly docile in Hezel's arms.

"How did you do that?" I asked in awe.

She smiled, "Elytia's a smart horse, though she's still young... but." She winked at me, "Horses imitate the emotion of their riders, if you're nervous, they're nervous, if you're calm, they're calm. So, just take a breather and calm down... maybe sing Elytia a song? There's one mother always liked to sing..."

~~~~~

"~Come now, my dear... Close your eyes... See the memory of distant days. Listen, they can be heard again. They're imprinted upon your heart...~" I sung softly, Elytia whinnied, and I smiled. I swore this Horse could understand Human speech... "~Follow this chain of memory, far away... I will follow this little thread, connected to the other side...~"

"~And see your gentle self. Lose yourself within the wind~" a voice behind me finished.

I jumped, and whirled around to see none other than my cousin, Prince Quan, standing behind me. With a peculiar expression on his face.

"A-Ah! Lord Quan!" I flushed in embarrassment, "How long have you been standing there...?"

Elytia gave me a humored look. And a allowed myself a brief glare at my horse.

"Not... long." Quan said idly, and I frowned. He looked so... unlike Quan. He seemed distracted, puzzled. "That song you were singing, where'd you learn it?"

"Oh, the song? My mother sung it to my elder sibling, and my sibling taught it to me." I replied, which may have been the first truly honest thing I had said to Quan.

"... I see..." Quan still looked troubled, "I've heard it before... I believe from my mother..."

"Your mother? The late Queen, yes?"

Quan nodded, "Yes, she died not long after I was born, but I can recall her... singing that to me, even though... I can't recall her face."

I winced, I knew that pain far too acutely.

"My mother died in childbirth, I never had the luxury of knowing her voice." In spite of the subject, I smiled to myself, "I like to imagine it would've sounded beautiful, though."

Quan smiled- no really, he gave the warmest smile I had ever seen from him. What was usually a face stern and strict had turned into something quite gentle and soft.

"I always hoped I would be able to sing the same song to my children..." Quan's eyes flashed, "Sir Cyrus, would you mind... teaching me the rest of the song? I only remember the beginning."

What...? This was the man who had always looked at me with suspicion, and now he was acting as if-

Oh shut it, Tulen.

"It would be my honor, Lord Quan."

———

I yawned, my eyes blinked open. And I heard quick, repetitive rapping of knuckles on wood.

"Sir Cyrus?" A young voice called, it was Oifey, "We're preparing for battle, the Verdanian army has been sighted approaching the castle."

I sighed, not one day's respite...

———

**An: Well, that's chapter 15 of the story, but only the beginning of chapter one in the game... Lord almighty I forgot how long FE4 was.**

**Cya round, folks!**


	16. Swordwoman

The campaign to Genoa had been an intense affair.

First off, after the conquest of Evans our army was immediately beset by a force from Genoa... which got out-maneuvered, tricked into fighting out in the open where our magic was the most accurate and cavalry charge the most unimpeeded, and thus their forces were crushed.

Honestly the military prowess of (or lack thereof) Grannvale's neighbors disturbed me, surely Grannvale could easily sweep and subdue Verdane whenever they wished, if this was all the resistance Verdane could muster? Especially with our downright warm reception in Evans.

After the crushing defeat we inflicted upon them, Sigurd sent Noish, Alec, and myself to scout ahead and report if there was another force readying to fight us.

And so, the three of us traveled down the road to the south, evaluating the terrain, keeping our disclipine, and behaving our best as knights—

"And then, that great big oaf _screamed, _dropped his axe, and ran for the hills crying out for his mother!" Alec laughed, and Noish quickly followed suite.

—well, atleast I was behaving professionally.

"Gentlemen, I know we're all having a good laugh about that victory, but please try to keep your heads screwed on." I commented dully. Forsetti on high, the two knights were nearly falling off their horses laughing.

Noish wipes a tear, "Oh, cut us some slack will you Cyrus? For a Royal guardknight, you can be quite the loose individual yourself, you know."

"It just goes to show the Royal Guard aren't as bad as we thought, some of the have souls!" Alec joked, and Tulen found himself smiling despite himself.

"Yes, unlike House Friege's Gelbenritter..." Noish mock-shuddered, causing Alec to laugh heartily.

That joke, however, completely flew over my head.

"The Gelbenritter...? What's wrong with them?" Tulen questioned.

Noish and Alec shared a knowing glance, "Well for starters," Alec began, "they're stuck up."

"Incredibly arrogant." Noish agreed.

"Self-righteous."

"Moralistic drivel."

Huh, that's interesting...

"Their commanders an arrogant loon too." Alec chimed in again.

"They call him 'The reincarnation of Thrud,' can you believe that?"

And that _certainly _sounds familiar.

"They're cowardly pansy's who don't know the difference between the pommel and point of a sword."

"They only cast thunder Magics, and even then they don't have a proper back up for when that fails."

I bit my lower lip to hold back my laughter, by the gods they were almost perfectly describing...

"And despite their flaws, they still think they're the Crusaders gift to the world of chivalry and knighthood."

The three horseman cantered down the road in silence for a few moments.

"Sounds like my cousin." I idly, but honestly commented.

Noish and Alec burst out laughing.

"Well, pray we never meet him then, we might just shove his face into a latrine!" Noish joked.

At that, I finally lost it, and laughed so hard I almost burst into tears. Elytia gave me a side eye, but I didn't care.

By Forsetti, the mere idea of the two lowly cavaliers shoving the Prince of Silesse's face into a toilet, without even realizing who they were threatening, was a work of pure poetic beauty.

And justice, considering what my Green-haired fop of a cousin had wreaked upon my kingdom.

"'Please try to keep your heads screwed on,'" Alec mimed.

I snorted in laughter, "Oh shut it, Smart-Alec."

Noish gauffled. And Alec gasped in mock-rage, "How dare thee, Sir! How dare thee stoop to such hideous lows, the evil known as 'wordplay', how dare thee take mine noble name in vain for the sake of some sick 'pun'?!" He cried out. "You wound me!" He threw an arm over his eyes in a mock-faint.

Soon all three of us had thrown caution to the wind, and jovially joked the time away, which, ended up bolstering our spirits quite considerably.

"Ah, nothing like a good laugh to set our moods in the right place, eh?" Noish commented, before a flash of confusion was set upon his face, and he leaned in his saddle to peer ahead, "And... it seems we've gotten our first sign of company ahead."

Alec and I followed Noish's gaze, and made out a vaguely-human shaped figure in the distance.

"Can't tell if it's an enemy or not," Alec said, "Could just be a peasant."

"Even then, it could be a trap." I muttered, the road had been running parallel to the edge of a dense forest, the trees could potential hide a small ambush force.

"Well, can't tell for sure just standing around here, can we?" Noish said, spurring is horse forward into a job, Alec and I followed the blonde. I took the opportunity to grasp my tome from my saddle.

As we closed in on the figure, they became clearer and clearer to us. I found myself making out the outline of a sheathed sword at the figures side, a confrontational, ready stance in front of us. I scanned the outline of the trees again, this looked like a trap.

When we came within 10 meters of her, Noish let out a low whistle, and we stopped. "By the Crusaders... they're..." he muttered, mesmerized.

"Beautiful." Alec finished, with a slight bit of... by Forsetti, was that drool?

I narrowed my eyes, the sword fighter in front of us was a woman, her hair was raven black, and her purple garb was an armored robe that exposed her long, shapely legs— I slapped myself.

The others gave me a weird look, but went back to staring.

Finally, the swordswoman had enough of our silence.

"Are you going to stand their gawking, or will you fight me?" She challenged, her dark eyes examined us with a fierce glare.

Noish blinked, before laughing. "Fight you?" He said, approaching her slowly, and putting on the most shit-eating grin I had ever seen on a man.

"Can we... back off..." I growled in a low tone, but neither of them heard me.

"Please, m'lady there's no need for a fight between us! To fight a beautiful maiden such as yourself would sully my honor as a knight!—"

"Suit yourself." She said, "Attack!" She yelled.

Immediately, the sound of bows releasing their arrows resounded from the forest, I immediately cast wind magic towards them, scattering the arrows from their intended paths, only to see Verdanian axe men rushing out from behind the trees towards us.

I swore, I knew this would happen... I should of protested more! Obviously this was a trap! I turned to my companions, "Alec, Noish! We need to get out of here—"

The black-haired swordswoman rushed at Noish, Noish recovered his senses and immediately charged at her, expecting her to dive to his left or right.

Instead, she dove under the horse. And the horse, completely unused to such suicidal human tactics, freaked out and stopped dead in its tracks, breaking the momentum of its charge and sending Noish flying out of the saddle onto the road.

Immediately the swordswoman rolled out from under the horse and rushed towards Noish, who had managed to lose his sword sometime during the fall.

"Noish!—" I yelled, but my attention snapped away from the battle, as one of the axemen had reached me. Elytia swayed to dodge the attack, and promptly back-kicked the Verdanian in the chest, sending the man directly into the ground.

My attention snapped back to Noish, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Alec had managed to rescue his fellow knight and intercept the swordswomans strike.

But just as he had intercepted the blow, the woman swung another with alarm speed, and Alec barely managed to dodge it in time so that it didn't separate his head from his shoulders.

In the meantime, Noish had found his sword and remounted his steed.

"Let's get out of here!" I yelled, using my wind magic to slice through another axemen who attempted to attack me.

Alec disengaged from his duel and fled, and Noish followed suit. Once again I heard the telltale _thrum _of arrows leaving their bowstrings, I turned around and cast another wind spell to disrupt the arrow's flight, yet not quick enough, as one of the arrows made a meaty _thwack _against my shoulder.

"Argh-!" I grunted, but still rode straight ahead, my armor made sure the wound wasn't deep, but it still stung fiercly.

After fifteen minutes of fleeing at a fierce gallop, we finally slowed down, our horse's chests heaving.

I clenched my mouth, and pulled the arrow of my shoulder, yet a swear still escaped my lips.

"Well, that was a _disaster._" I muttered angrily, before glaring at Noish, "What the hell were you thinking? Riding up to her and trying to charm her?!?"

Noish swallowed, "Well, I... well, how was I supposed to know she was an enemy!" He defended.

...

By the Crusaders these knights were dense.

"She. Had. A. Sword." I said through grit teeth, "She was glaring at us, she quite literally challenged you to a duel. AND WE WERE WARNED TO EXPECT AN AMBUSH, SO PERHAPS NEXT TIME YOU SHOULD TRY TO KEEP IT IN YOUR PANTS BEFORE YOU STICK IT IN A BLAZING FURNACE—"

"Easy there, Sir Cyrus!" Alec interjected, "We may have made a mistake, besides, once we go back to Lord Sigurd, I'm sure no one will make fun of us for this incident."

———

"—So you got your ass kicked by a girl?" Lex said with barely contained laughter.

"S-shut up!" Noish protested.

Lex guffawed, though the glares of the rest of the knights present in the camp silenced him rather quickly.

"Sigurd, the lack of your knights to have a proper sense of chivalric propriety is quite literally a deadly sin." Quan chided.

Sigurd sighed, "And so it is. Alec, Noish. You'll both be punished for a lack of discipline—"

I smiled slightly at the their dejected looks, they deserved it.

"—And Sir Cyrus, I have no authority to punish you, but I am disappointed you failed to stop them."

What?

"Ahem, excuse me, Lord Sigurd. But I'm confused, 'failed to stop them?'" I questioned.

"You were assigned along with them to keep them in line." Quan spoke up.

"Uh, given the circumstances of them quite literally drooling over the woman in question, I tried my best, M'lords." I replied blankly.

At that, Lex burst out laughing once more.

———

"I never realized knights could be so unprofessional!" Azel exclaimed, "What about that woman made them act in such a manner?"

"Oh come on, Azel, think about it this way, what if you saw Aideen in her undergarments—"

"Lex! For Bladyr's sake don't corrupt his mind!" I interjected, but it was too late, Azel's face was flushed blood red in embarrassment.

The three of us, under the orders of Lord Sigurd, were to make our way down the road to distract the Verdanian force, while the main force went along the coast's edge to attack Genoa castle from the East, hoping to catch it unprepared.

And thus, I was riding down the road yet again, I on Elytia, and Azel and Lex on the latters horse.

"Y'know, Azel, I don't mind ferrying you around, but you kinda need to learn how to ride on your own." Lex mentioned. "I could help you." He offered.

Azel glared at his friend, "The last time you tried to 'help' me learn how to ride, you spooked my horse and it threw me off!"

"I keep telling you it was an accident!" He protested, "Whatever, if you don't trust me, who else is gonna teach you?"

Azel opened his mouth to respond, but shut it in anger, before I noticed a very strange spark in his eyes, the spark of a schemer.

I shuddered, Azel looked very much like his brother in that moment.

He turned to look at me, his eyes beaming. "Sir Cyrus! Could you teach me?"

Lex chuckled, "Azel, he's your bodyguard, you can't just ask him to te-"

"Once we have a break from combat, absolutely, M'lord." I answered. I took a sick sense of satisfaction from Lex's surprised face.

"Thank you, Sir Cyrus!" Azel practically cheered.

I smiled, Azel's enthusiasm was infectious. And why shouldn't he learn how to ride? It would make my life a lot easier without having to worry about Arvis roasting me to death for a stray scratch befalling Azel.

"Not a problem at all, M'lord." I replied. Besides, the kid needed something to differentiate himself from his older brother, living in the shadow of a relative wasn't healthy... I would know.

"Huh? Oh, look Cyrus, I think we found your girlfriend!" Lex grinned. And I wearily looked down the road to see the same figure as before standing there, menacingly.

"Eh... I have an idea, let's go off to the side of the road, and put her between us and the forest?"

Azel nodded, "That seems reasonable, let's go."

And so we circled around to the swordswoman's eastern flank. However, when we got close enough, she put a stop to our maneuvering.

"So, the gawkers have returned... or atleast one of you." She called out, "Which of you will challenge me? If you best me fairly, the soldiers behind me will return to Genoa, and not attack you."

A Verdanite soldier's head popped out from behind one of the tree trunks, "Hold a minute there, lassie, we promised no such thi—"

"Silence!" She yelled, and pointed her sword and the axemen, "Unless you wish to fight me yourselves?"

The man yelped, and ducked back behind the tree.

"So how do we handle this?" I whispered to my compatriots.

Azel bit his lower lip, "We need to stall for aslong as possible... but that swordswoman is quite deadly-don't you thi—"

"I ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGE!" Lex roared.

...

You absolute Forsetti-damned crazy son of a—

"Lex! You can't just—" Azel protested.

"—I actually can, and I will." He winked, before dismounting from his horse, and approaching the swordswoman with only axe in hand.

The black-haired woman raised an eyebrow, "An axe against my sword... isn't that rather stupid logic?"

I nodded solemnly, and grasped a fistful of my hair in frustration, with that woman's speed, she could easily outmaneuver Lex's heavy axe strikes.

Lex smirked, "Oh, you misunderstand, you see. In Grannvale, the challenged decides the weapons of the match, and the weapons must be of the same type, so an axe versus a sword just won't cut it for an official duel."

"So, you will wield a sword then?" She questioned.

And that's where Lex's usual cocky smirk turned into a full blown, shit-eating grin. "Nope, challenged decides the weapon of choice, so I choose bare-handed combat!" He threw his axe to the floor.

...

You Forsetti-damned maniac.

The woman raised an eyebrow, Azel raised an eyebrow, and even I raised an eyebrow, before slapping a hand to my face.

"By the Crusaders, he's more suited for tavern-brawls than knightly duels..." I muttered.

And then, something quite remarkable happened.

The woman laughed. A long, hearty laugh, before undoing the tie between her sheath and belt, and letting the weapon drop to the road's surface.

"Very well, Grannvalian, tell me, what is your name?"

"Lex, yours?"

"Ayra." She said, before getting into a ready stance, "Whenever you're ready."

Immediately, Lex bull charged the woman. Ayra easily dodged, darting out of Lex's charge with a graceful ease of a skilled fighter. Lex followed up with two wild round-house punches, both missed. Yet Ayra managed to get a kick into his gut, Lex staggered a bit, but took a firmer stance, and chuckled.

"Man, you're quite the mouse in this chase, aren't you?" Lex insulted.

Ayra scoffed, "But you're barely anything of a cat, cats know how to catch their prey."

"Touché!" He yelled, before charging at the woman again with a haymaker, she dodged it, yet her counter-punch was blockrd by Lex's own fast reactions.

"What's the matter, lady? Your punch's are as light as a feather!" Lex yelled as he swung again.

Ayra spat, "Really?! Well then, that this!" She dodged the punch, and swung her leg directly into his...

Oh, ohhhh man.

Azel and I winced in sympathy, and there was a moment of stillness.

Aura screamed, and hopped away, clutching her leg. I did a double-take.

Lex laughed.

"You fool!" He exclaimed, pointing a finger at the now kneeling Ayra. "You did exactly what I wanted you to!"

"...you wanted to get kicked in the Crown Jewels?" I muttered.

"It would've worked too! But hours before this combat, I hid extra-plate armor over my crotch! I planned this from the beginning!" He roared triumphantly.

Aura tried to stand, but fell to the ground again, swearing oaths in a language I didn't recognize.

Lex grinned, "Admit it, you lost, that obviously cracked your leg bone, you can't stand."

Ayra glared. She got back up on one knee, slowly, and painfully standing up, even from my distanced viewpoint I could make out the tears of pain in here eyes, but also her fierce unyielding glare. Her legs were shaking, but she held firm.

"No." She spat, she raised her fists again, "If you want me to surrender, make me!"

Lex raised an eyebrow, and Azel's eyes widened, and I'll admit my own surprise too, that woman was running on some mixture of adrenaline, grit, and spite. Honestly? It was rather terrifying.

Lex charged again, preparing another haymaker at the woman's skull. Ayra made no move to dodge, instead, she waited where she was, glaring the axe-knight down every step of the way.

When Lex finally reached her, I...

Alright, this happened within the approximate span of a second, so allow me to explain in detail.

Ayra leaned back before the punch hit her and grabbed his arm. Manipulating Lex's momentum against him, and causing him to fall.

Unfortunately, Lex's armored leg smacked into Ayra's wounded leg, causing her to cry out in pain, and also fall.

As they both fell in the same direction, their heads collided with enough force for them to both be knocked out cold.

Azel, the Verdanites, and I stood deathly still for a moment. Processing what had just transpired.

Apparently, the same thought passed through the enemy commander and I's brains.

"The duel's a draw—" we both began.

"—SO WE'RE FREE TO CHASE'EM DOWN LADS!" The boss roared.

"—WE NEED TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" I yelped.

The Verdanites charged, but I cast a strong gust of wind bowling them over and delaying their rush while Azel and I rushed to pick up Lex.

"What do we do!" Azel panicked, "I don't know how to ride, how are all three of us escape on your horse—"

"—we're not!" I snapped in frustration, "You'll have to ride on Lex's horse-" I slung the axe knight over his horse, "-and get it to follow me, no 'buts'!"

Azel swallowed thickly, but nodded.

"Wait, what about Ayra?" He yelled as he gripped the reigns of the horse.

"What about her?!" I yelled, casting another wind spell to disperse a flight of enemy arrows.

"She's a commander! If we capture her, it would disrupt their forces!" He retorted.

I scoffed, that would—

...

Actually, not a bad idea.

I swung her over Elytia and mounted the horse, "Let's get the hell out of here!" I yelled, bringing down a hard slap on Elytia's rear, and Azel follows suit. We tore off into the plains.

———

**An: welp, another double upload after an abnormally long delay.**

**Anyways, thank you for reading, cya next time, folks!**


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